Randox Covid Contracts

Stewart Malcolm McDonald Excerpts

Wednesday 17th November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Brendan O'Hara]

I will come to the hon. Member in a moment.

[Stewart Malcolm McDonald (Glasgow South) (SNP)]

He can just make a speech.

[Brendan O'Hara]

That is a very good idea. Perhaps the hon. Member for Rother Valley (Alexander Stafford) would like to make a speech. The memo seen by The Times also states that the company feared that it did not “have enough extraction systems” and “was hoping yourselves” —the Government—

“could help us access extraction systems from universities, hospitals anywhere…Any we can get our hands on.”

Crucially, The Times further reported that this memo was written by an official in the Department of Health and Social Care after a phone call on 9 April between Lord Bethell, the Conservative Minister responsible for awarding testing contracts at the time, and Owen Paterson, the Conservative MP who was being handsomely paid by Randox to lobby on its behalf. It appears that the company employing a Conservative MP, which was fast- tracked and awarded a no-bid contract worth £133 million, was actually ill-equipped to provide the vital service it had promised to deliver. This absolutely stinks, and unless and until every record of what was communicated between Mr Paterson, Lord Bethell, Randox, Government officials and special advisers is made public, the stench of corruption will only increase.