Why PPE and virus contracts represent Tory cronyism at its worst – Rachel Reeves

ONE of the few uplifting pieces of Covid-19 news has been the daily update on the hundreds of thousands of people getting vaccinated.
The Government's awarding of Covid contracts continues to be called into question.The Government's awarding of Covid contracts continues to be called into question.
The Government's awarding of Covid contracts continues to be called into question.

Thanks to the brilliant work of our NHS, our scientists and an army of volunteers, we can finally see some light at the end of the tunnel.

As we near the target of giving vaccines to the four most vulnerable groups by mid-February, the vaccination programme is on course to be a life-saving success.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It is a positive development that we should do all we can to support by following the rules to keep the number of new cases down and get the virus under control.

A woman wearing PPE arrives at a Covid vaccine centre this week.A woman wearing PPE arrives at a Covid vaccine centre this week.
A woman wearing PPE arrives at a Covid vaccine centre this week.

However, there are areas where the news is still bleak and I and my Labour colleagues would be failing in our duty if we did not tackle the Government over its mistakes and try to fix the problems.

With more than 110,000 deaths now recorded, the UK has the highest total of deaths of any European country and one of the highest mortality rates.

Sadly, that toll included Captain Sir Tom Moore who died with coronavirus last week.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The £32.8m he raised for the NHS was an astonishing achievement. He was a source of huge inspiration and is rightly being recognised as a national hero.

Boris Johnson is facing growing calls to hold an inquiry into the Covid-19 pandemic.Boris Johnson is facing growing calls to hold an inquiry into the Covid-19 pandemic.
Boris Johnson is facing growing calls to hold an inquiry into the Covid-19 pandemic.

In economic terms, we endured one of the worst recessions of any major economy in 2020 and are on the brink of a double-dip recession.

There are many lessons to be learnt from the pandemic – which is why Labour has called for a rapid review so that we never have to suffer another winter like the one we are going through.

One especially important lesson is on Government procurement, which remains blighted by a lack of transparency, conflicts of interests and billions of pounds of waste.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Often, there has been no competition for the supply of items like personal protective equipment (PPE) which has meant taxpayers paid a fortune – in some cases for equipment not even up to the job.

In my role as Shadow Cabinet Office Minister, I have called on Ministers to dump their ideological devotion to dishing out Government contracts to outsourcing companies.

Instead of investing in our local public health teams who are best suited to the job, the Government has outsourced the work such as test and trace to a handful of large private companies.

Other contracts have been awarded to friends and donors of the Conservative Party – increasing the claims of “cronyism” surrounding government procurement.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Why did the Government feel it was the right thing to do to use a Florida-based jewellery designer as a middleman for a PPE contract that ended up making him and his business partner multi-millionaires?

Ministers should have done more to buy more PPE in the UK and support British manufacturing jobs.

Another huge contract for 
PPE was signed without competitive tendering with Ayanda Capital, which specialises in currency trading and offshore property.

The 50 million masks they made now cannot be used by the NHS as they don’t meet safety standards.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The Government is spending billions on outsourcing, and the public have a right to know how and where that money is spent.

We have seen before how government outsourcing goes wrong with the collapse of Carillion in 2018 with a debt mountain of £1.5bn.

Yet, Carillion managed to pay out bonuses to senior management over protecting pensions for lower-paid 
workers.

Despite these alarm bells, 
the Government continues to pour away taxpayers’ money 
on its obsession with outsourcing.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

However, in its report last year, the respected Institute for Government said Ministers should consider returning some outsourced services back to the public sector.

It cited the DVLA which had taken back its IT services, 
saving £60m, and highlighted local councils which had made some services better or more reliable by taking them back in-house.

We saw this recently with the recent scandal over the quality of free school meals provided by private companies.

The pictures of some of the woeful meals from some private firms were in stark contrast to higher quality meal boxes offered by Leeds City Council’s in-house provider.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It is a depressingly familiar story when it comes the Conservatives. More public money is spent on providing lower quality services.

Funds are being wasted 
when we need to be investing in our public services more than ever.

The Government must learn lessons from this crisis, especially when it comes to using taxpayers’ money to provide services – whether that is for life-saving medical equipment or school meals.

We need a post-pandemic recovery built on protecting our public services – not wasting taxpayers’ funds on endless outsourcing that continually fails to deliver value for money.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Rachel Reeves is Labour MP for Leeds West and a senior member of the Shadow Cabinet.

Support The Yorkshire Post and become a subscriber today. Your subscription will help us to continue to bring quality news to the people of Yorkshire. In return, you’ll see fewer ads on site, get free access to our app and receive exclusive members-only offers. Click here to subscribe.

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.