At least 46 PPE deals were awarded to firms put in a special “VIP lane” by Conservative ministers, MPs and officials during the Covid pandemic before a formal due diligence process was put in place, it has emerged.
Ministers had claimed all PPE contracts were put through a rigorous “eight-stage process” for assuring quality and value for money, when criticised over the “VIP lane” via which £5bn in contracts were handed to companies with political or Whitehall connections.
However, a parliamentary answer obtained by Labour’s Angela Rayner reveals that 46 out of the 111 contracts awarded through the “high priority” lane did not go through the formal eight-stage process, which was only brought in on 4 May 2020.
Last year, the National Audit
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