Tory hits back at claims over his role in scandal-hit free school

A spokesman for Alan Lewis also said it was “simply factually incorrect” to suggest he had once been the chairman of governors at the Kings Science Academy in Bradford.

The school was debated in Parliament last week following a damning financial audit by the Government which was leaked last year resulting in a police investigation into allegations it had submitted fabricated invoices to claim public money.

Bradford MP David Ward, who called the debate, has accused the Department for Education (DfE) of attempting to cover the matter up for political reasons. During the debate he also raised the question of Mr Lewis’s involvement in the school.

Mr Lewis, a vice chair of the Tory Party, is its executive patron and the Kings Science Academy has been built on his company, Hartley Group’s land in a deal worth almost £6m over 20 years.

He has consistently said he was never the school’s chairman of governors and never had responsibility for financial management or governance at the school.

Last week, however, Bradford East MP David Ward claimed in the Westminster debate that he had obtained evidence that Mr Lewis was involved in the financial management of Kings.

The Liberal Democrat MP said: “I had a letter from Mr Lewis as recently as December 2013, signed by himself, in which he states: ‘I was never chair of the governing body of the academy’.

“Yet I have a copy of an email to the department, which has been amended by Mr Lewis, to show him as chair of the governing body and not simply as someone involved in some way in the school.” He also referred to Mr Lewis’s statement that he did not have responsibility for financial management of the school.

Mr Ward told MPs: “I have a letter from the DfE in which the financial arrangements of the school have Mr Lewis not only as one of many involved, but as the person who should receive financial reports. He was the key individual who was receiving the reports, even though, to repeat his own words ‘at no time have I ever had responsibility for the financial management of the academy.’ The email clearly shows, set out as an action point, that the monthly financial reports were to be given directly to him.

“The truth is that Mr Lewis was personally and heavily involved in the school, right from the very beginning, but he now wants to distance himself from any involvement.”

Mr Lewis’s spokesman told the Yorkshire Post that Companies House records proved he had never been involved in the governing body. “The forms are publicly available on the Companies House website for anyone to see, and clearly show that Alan Lewis was never one of the governors/directors.”

Mr Lewis’s spokesman has previously told the Yorkshire Post that he presumed “erroneous references to Mr Lewis as chair originate from a historic error on the academy’s website which, however, was rectified immediately when it was brought to Mr Lewis’ attention.”

The DfE said earlier this month that it had been told by the school in October 2011 that Mr Lewis was the chairman of governors but discovered in October 2012 that it had been misinformed.

It says that it later discovered there was no chair in place for the school’s first year.

West Yorkshire Police is investigating alleged fraud at the 
free school.

Earlier this month the school’s principal, Sajid Raza, was arrested and released on police bail pending further enquiries.