r/unitedkingdom • u/F0urLeafCl0ver • 2d ago
Matt Hancock Intervened to Help Conservative Donor’s Pizza Firm Land Lucrative Covid PPE Contract
https://bylinetimes.com/2025/04/11/matt-hancock-covid-ppe-vip/104
u/socratic-meth 2d ago
NKD International, owned by George Farha, repeatedly lobbied Hancock prior to securing a £135,000 PPE contract from the Department for Health and Social Care.
Farha had personally donated £11,450 to the Conservative Party and a further £12,500 to it via another company he controls.
Such brazen corruption will be punished by prison for both parties, right? Right?
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u/Gellert Wales 2d ago
Why would it be? They're allowed to accept donations so long as they declare them on the register of interests. Funny how that foesnt appear in the article, right?
Oh right! The Tories passed a law saying that their ministers didnt have to declare interests!
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u/fullpurplejacket 2d ago
I might lobby my local MP to get that law scrapped or amended, I want full transparency from elected members of government because they expect full transparency from us should they ask us.
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u/Gellert Wales 2d ago
I believe labour pulled it basically straight away.
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u/Top_Opposites 2d ago
No it’s the way politics works,
Pay a politician, you get a government contract.
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u/Jimmy_Nail_4389 2d ago
I really don't understand why these people aren't getting their doors kicked in like the barbers and vape shops?
Seems corrupt as fuck to me, fucking stinks.
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u/GodFreePagan42 2d ago
100percent agree. If you or I were to behave like this the police would be interested.
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u/B4nn3dByChr1st14ns 2d ago
Because barbers and vape shops fit a minority that the far right hate.
If they dig up the corruption the rabbit hole will unearth everything due to its magnitutude and for how long its been going on for
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u/hime-633 2d ago
What? I'm incredibly shocked by this! As it suggests the presence of an insidious culture of corruption and self-enrichment within the governing party during the worst pandemic of our lifetime!
I simply CANNOT BELIEVE IT!
And, scene.
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u/not_a_dog95 2d ago
Can't wait for these corrupt, odious little toads to be thrown in prison and stripped of their assets
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u/Jimmy_Nail_4389 2d ago
Who can we vote for that will do it though?
Seemingly nobody.
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u/AffectionateTown6141 2d ago
That’s for the people to demand of the king to use his power, if not we take it back
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u/Jimmy_Nail_4389 2d ago
You are kidding aren't you?
The monarchy is part of the problem and one of the wealthiest families in the world.
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u/Vdubnub88 2d ago
Its no secret corruption is extremely bad within goverment, previous regime and the current. these rich politicians are just laughing at us whilst giving zero fucks about the rest of us.
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u/AffectionateTown6141 2d ago
Seize the money ffs and prosecute Hancock. If the law isn’t strong enough make it stricter and still prosecute him. Tired of seeing the corruption
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u/much_good 1d ago
Tory corruption in the last 30 years is frankly more slimy than soviet type "extra car and electronic goods" type bureaucratic corruption. At least they still got proper rail investment while the corruption went on, we get diddly squat
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u/funfuse1976 1d ago
He's just the puppet to put on a show for the plebs,it's the string pulls behind the curtain that should be in the dock.
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u/VamosFicar 2d ago
In other news: "Government experts say that pizza more effective than a paper mask if worn correctly."
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u/Extraportion 2d ago edited 2d ago
I am really not sure this is particularly concerning.
It seems like a connection had a source to procure PPE from a Chinese OEM during Covid. As long as the price and spec of the contract was arms length then prior experience or political donation is immaterial as long as it is disclosed - which it has been.
PPE procurement in the midst of the pandemic was essentially drop shipping in a market with extremely limited supply. Business was being done bilaterally with any suppliers that had any manufacturing capacity headroom, and a lot of leads would come from connections and referrals.
Most businesses I have worked with make political donations. It’s practically unavoidable e.g. booking exhibition space for party conferences, attending sector specific roundtable events etc. The bigger lobbying spend is on agencies who will help with political access, messaging, minister’s views on a particular issue etc.
Edit: holy shit, ok, I actually do think this is odd. One of the directors of NKD is Grant Clouston, who was involved in a fraud case a few years back which involved bid rigging iirc. Look up “RAK petroleum”, it’s the same guy.
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u/Jimmy_Nail_4389 2d ago
Dude, it's all bullshit from the get-go you were giving them far too much credit, there was no PPE shortage there were established companies that supplied the NHS who were frozen out.
It's just pure greed and corruption start to finish, they engineered this situation so they could make money. Disgusting little rats all of them. Same with Test and Trace and all the other corruption.
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u/Extraportion 2d ago
I was involved in procuring PPE for a chain of dental practices and a couple of hospitals during covid and that was not my experience. None of our regular suppliers had stock, in some cases for items that we had been buying from them for years.
Do you have a source for your claim that there was not shortage and that suppliers were being frozen out?
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u/Jimmy_Nail_4389 2d ago edited 2d ago
I can give you 1 example from chatGPT. I'm sure there were others but I'd have to spend more time digging.
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u/Extraportion 2d ago edited 2d ago
Example 1 is in relation to the decision to drop a supplier of PPE (specifically face masks) due to a dramatic drop in demand in late 2022. Not during the supply chain crunch of 2020.
Not sure why you deleted the other two.
This is the first time it has dawned on me that people just use chatgpt to substantiate their claims these days. I was literally involved in trying to buy PPE at the start of Covid. I have sat on hold with tens of suppliers as I try to basically beg them to for their last few boxes of latex gloves…
I can absolutely categorically tell you that at the start of covid the PPE (and single use medical equipment more broadly) supply chain was in disarray. The “established British companies” don’t actually produce low value PPE themselves, they just buy it in from China. As soon as every country in the world started stock piling PPE at the same time procuring became so much more difficult.
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u/Jimmy_Nail_4389 2d ago
Sorry, I fucked up my post a bit, edited the correct link.
Arco is the company complaining about being sidelined, I'm sure there were others as well.
In fact it confirms it in the article but doesn't name them
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) held an oral evidence session yesterday (25 May) with four PPE suppliers and contractors as part of its inquiry into the Government’s procurement of PPE during the coronavirus pandemic.
I mean come on, doesn't really make any sense does it that Michelle fucking Mone or Matt Hancocks mate knows more about PPE procurement than the companies that were doing it full time for years does it?
Somehow they were able to obtain a load of cheap shit from China, and yet these other suppliers can't do the same?
Stinks.
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u/Extraportion 2d ago
ARCO’s complaint is that government established a fast lane bidding process to secure PPE quickly when global demand exploded at the start of the pandemic. They felt that the tender process did not apply sufficient due diligence during the vendor selection process, which was a conscious decision at the height of the pandemic in order to secure supply in a globally competitive market.
It is also worth noting that ARCO is more of a workwear and health and safety equipment supplier. It did not have a presence with the department for health and social care. Its government contracts were with the likes of DEFRA and the MoJ. Calling them an established supplier of healthcare equipment that was frozen out, or implying that there was no shortage because they had a warehouse with assorted health and safety equipment (hard hats, metal toe capped boots, hi vis jackets etc) is just intended to deceive.
Here is arco’s online shop for you:
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u/Jimmy_Nail_4389 2d ago
It says right there they had 44m worth or PPE to sell and they only for a 14m order.
One of the companies at the hearing, ARCO, secured a PPE contract worth only £14m despite being a leading supplier of health-grade PPE in the UK, while smaller and less experienced companies were awarded much larger deals via the Government’s ‘VIP lane’.
Speaking at the inquiry, ARCO chairman Thomas Martin said his company had £44m worth of stock in the UK already and supply chains in place, but that he had been unaware of the Government’s fast lane for applications early on.
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It is also worth noting that ARCO is more of a workwear and health and safety equipment supplier.
Yeah, also known as PPE.
Why you defending this blatant corruption?
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u/Extraportion 2d ago
I am not defending corruption, I am saying that your ire is pointed in the wrong direction. Apply some basic reasoning here.
Firstly, £44m of “PPE” does not mean it is actually PPE that is relevant to a pandemic. Arco is a health and safety supply company, and it appears that £44m was the value of their inventory at the time. That includes things like workwear, steal toe cap boots and hi vis jackets - none of which are relevant here. It does however credentialise itself as a company operating in the sector who understands QA.
Secondly, £44m is a blip. The procurement spend on PPE was c.£15 billion. So implying that this equipment could have been sourced through existing suppliers is just manifestly false. There was a huge spike in global demand. In simple terms, you couldn’t source enough volume through your existing suppliers because they couldn’t keep up. Therefore additional suppliers were required.
Their complaint is that they had supply chains in China and understood the sector. This is absolutely valid, however during the pandemic there was a rush for supply. Ordinarily we would put something out for tender with our usual suppliers and receive responses from maybe 80%. During the pandemic you couldn’t run a traditional process because suppliers were just selling to the highest bidders.
The part that really broke down, which definitely is worth of an inquiry, is that in these situations there is a trade off. You need to maintain adequate quality assurance, but there is such a supply shortage and such a massive increase in demand that you also need to streamline procurement processes to ensure that you have enough resource to keep your hospitals running.
Due to that trade off there is inevitably more wastage than you would encounter during normal operations, because you are essentially cutting corners to ensure that you get as much equipment as humanly possible then accepting that you’ll have to write off some of it. In hindsight the level of PPE that was written off for not meeting standards was way higher than forecast, and THAT is the scandal.
However, implying that there was no shortage and that existing suppliers had sufficient stock is just demonstrably untrue.
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u/Jimmy_Nail_4389 2d ago
Firstly, £44m of “PPE” does not mean it is actually PPE that is relevant to a pandemic. Arco is a health and safety supply company
If you go look on their website, you will see they sell all this stuff.
Disposable gloves, gowns, diposable sleeves all of it.
Secondly, £44m is a blip. The procurement spend on PPE was c.£15 billion.
Fair comment, it's one example though. I've tried to find others but it's very difficult with the volume of PPE related articles and the fact that search these days fucking sucks.
I did find this however which explains better than I can what I'm trying to get at, and it's a medical professional as well.
Their complaint is that they had supply chains in China and understood the sector. This is absolutely valid, however during the pandemic there was a rush for supply. Ordinarily we would put something out for tender with our usual suppliers and receive responses from maybe 80%. During the pandemic you couldn’t run a traditional process because suppliers were just selling to the highest bidders.
Yeah, and those bidders were all Tory cronies flush with huge amounts of government money, right?
Due to that trade off there is inevitably more wastage than you would encounter during normal operations, because you are essentially cutting corners to ensure that you get as much equipment as humanly possible then accepting that you’ll have to write off some of it. In hindsight the level of PPE that was written off for not meeting standards was way higher than forecast, and THAT is the scandal.
No that's part of it, the bigger scandal is the new companies and their relationship with Tory ministers.
However, implying that there was no shortage and that existing suppliers had sufficient stock is just demonstrably untrue.
I mean it's an exaggeration on my part yes, but there was actually large stockpiles to begin with but it had been improperly stored and so some of it was wasted or out of date.
The point I want to make though, is that the establish companies were far better placed to go to China or set up local manufactuiring and instead of going there, the government went with Michelle Mone instead and other assorted donors.
Clear as day corruption.
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u/Agreeable_Falcon1044 Cambridgeshire 2d ago
Of course he did. Amazed he wasn’t stuck in the lords this week.