The SNP has hit out at ‘Tory sleaze’ following the release of a House of Commons committee report on the awarding of Covid contracts to Randox Laboratories ltd.
The report from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) concluded, due to poor UK government record-keeping, that the Department of Health and Social Care’s awarding of £777 million worth of contracts to the firm may not have been awarded properly.
The report found ‘obvious’ potentials for conflicts of interest over the firm’s previous employment of disgraced MP Owen Paterson, and the extensive lobbying and gifts provided to then Health Secretary Matt Hancock MP.
The SNP’s Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary, Martyn Day MP, said the awarding of the contracts ‘stinks to the high heavens’ and attacked the Tories’ record of sleaze and corruption under outgoing law-breaking Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Commenting, Martyn Day MP said:
“This all stinks to the high heavens, and of course it’s not the first time the Tories’ awarding of Covid contracts has come into question.
“It’s clear that these incidents are not in any way isolated, the UK government’s record of sleaze and scandal has been well documented throughout Boris Johnson’s tenure – it’s endemic within the Conservative Party.
“The public deserve answers over why Randox, a firm that failed to deliver expected levels of testing capacity against its first contract, were awarded a further £328 million of public money and why the government did nothing to ensure proper records were kept.
“He may be going, but Boris Johnson and his cronies will be followed for decades by his legacy of sleaze and corruption at all levels of his government which he seems to have empowered to engage in the dodgy activities we hear about far too often.
“This Westminster system is absolutely broken and no changing of the guard or tinkering around the edges will fix it, it’s time for Scots to free themselves from this sinking ship and chart their own course with independence.”
