Government PPE Contracts

Nadia Whittome Excerpts

Tuesday 6th December 2022 Commons Chamber

[Nadia Whittome (Nottingham East) (Lab)]

The Government’s actions on PPE were a catalogue of failures from start to finish, with devastating consequences. Before coronavirus, the existing PPE stockpile did not include everything it should have. Then the Government were slow off the mark. They took too long to understand that we would need more PPE and failed to get on with ordering it. That meant that in the first wave of the pandemic, those on the front line were left dangerously exposed. I know that because when I returned to care work to help relieve the strain on my former colleagues, I saw at first-hand masks being rationed and visors donated by the public.

When I spoke out about those PPE shortages, Conservative Members insinuated that I was lying. Among them—I have informed them that I will be referencing them—were the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, the right hon. Member for Braintree (James Cleverly), the right hon. Member for Mid Bedfordshire (Ms Dorries), who was a Health Minister at the time, and the hon. Member for Mansfield (Ben Bradley). Despite report after report proving that there were PPE shortages and that I was telling the truth, not one has ever apologised for those comments. It is not me I want them to apologise to, but the millions in the care sector, both staff and the people they were caring for, who were forgotten and neglected by their Government.

The Government put care workers’ lives at risk, as well as the lives of those receiving care. The workers, overwhelmingly women and disproportionately migrants, earnt poverty wages. Of course, that was not everyone’s experience of the pandemic. While my former colleagues worked day and night for a pittance, with some paying with their lives, the rich saw the chance to cash in. One businessman’s company made a £70 million profit on a contract for PPE that was reportedly not suitable for the NHS, and therefore went unused. He paid himself £13 million and celebrated his birthday last week by eating a cake shaped like a briefcase of cash on a private yacht. Meller Designs was awarded PPE contracts worth more than £170 million. In 2020, it made profits of over £13 million, a 9,000% increase on the previous year. One of the co-owners had donated nearly £60,000 to Conservative politicians and the central party since 2009. Unsurprisingly, the company was referred to the fast-track VIP lane by a Conservative Minister.

Once the Government started ordering PPE, all too often it was not about who could supply the best, the fastest and at a reasonable price, but about who had connections to the Conservative party. Those referred to the VIP lane were 10 times more likely to be awarded contracts. So the Government acted unlawfully, wasted billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money in the process and failed to protect those on the frontline.

We talk about how corruption robs citizens and ruins public services in countries across the world, but when it is happening right here in front of our eyes, we dress it up in euphemisms. I urge the Government to come clean and release all the papers relating to the awarding of contracts to Medpro, and also relating to all contracts awarded through the VIP lane.