Government loses legal battle over Covid ‘VIP Lane’
Exclusive: Judge slams “most unsatisfactory” Cabinet Office and orders release of names of 'VIP' firms to Democracy for Sale reporter - after *four year* wait.
The government has lost a long-running legal battle to block the release of information on companies referred to the lucrative 'VIP lane' for Covid contracts.
Firms linked to Conservative donors and party figures received over a billion pounds in PPE contracts during the pandemic after referrals from Tory ministers, MPs, and officials.
Companies in the VIP lane were ten times more likely to be given contracts, yet over half of the PPE they supplied was unusable.
In February 2021, Democracy for Sale reporter Jenna Corderoy filed a Freedom of Information (FOI) request seeking the names of all companies referred to the VIP lane and those who recommended them, including MPs and members of the House of Lords.
Months later, a court ruled the VIP lane was "unlawful," and the government released the names of companies that secured contracts.
However, the identities of unsuccessful bidders and their political referrers remained secret, keeping the public in the dark about how politicians had helped politically-connected VIPs to seek public contracts.
For four years, the government resisted full disclosure, arguing it should not have to reveal how the VIP lane operated.
Corderoy took the case all the way to an information tribunal, where Judge Foss has now ruled that the government has 35 days to give Democracy for Sale the names of all unsuccessful companies.
Judge Foss criticised the Cabinet Office and the Department for Health and Social Care for their "most unsatisfactory" handling of Corderoy’s request.
The judge also said that the government cannot argue that it would cost too much to provide the names of the politicians that referred the companies to the lane.
The government argued that disclosing the names of the unsuccessful bidders would prejudice commercial interests, but Judge Foss disagreed, saying that the Cabinet Office and the DHSC’s arguments were “inchoate”.
Jo Maugham, executive director of the Good Law Project, which has led multiple legal battles over Covid contracts, said the case highlighted the Cabinet Office’s continued efforts to obstruct transparency.
"£13bn was spent on PPE. Well over £10bn was wasted. Huge sums went to those connected to the then Tory Government. Much of it on unusable PPE. You would think, by now, Michael Gove having moved on, the Cabinet Office would at last want to come clean,” Maugham added.
The VIP lane has been a major focus of the Covid Inquiry, which is examining the procurement and distribution of billions in PPE and medical equipment.
Former health secretary Matt Hancock told the inquiry this week that setting up a VIP lane for PPE suppliers with a political connection was “standard practice”. When asked about a £30million contract awarded to a firm by the landlord of his local pub, Hancock said the inquiry had followed a “wholly naive” line of questioning.
In an earlier session, Lord Agnew, the former Cabinet minister in charge of procurement during the pandemic, accused the Covid Inquiry of an "obsession" with the VIP lane.
Among those who secured multimillion-pound contracts were firms linked to Conservative donors, including David Meller—who lobbied Michael Gove to ‘speed up’ a £65 million PPE deal—Tory peer Lord Chadlington, and Michelle Mone, whose company PPE Medpro is under National Crime Agency investigation over £200 million in Covid contracts.
Commenting on the first tier tribunal judgment Labour MP Phil Brickell said: “It is appalling that the Tories wasted so much taxpayer money trying to conceal the gold rush that the pandemic was for a select few people with the right friends.”
“The new Labour Government has an opportunity now to put some clear blue water between itself and the Tories. No more obfuscation, no more secrecy, no more cronyism,” he added.
Corderoy was represented at the informational tribunal by Leigh Day’s Erin Alcock and Christopher Knight of 11KBW.
Alcock said that “this judgment is a significant step towards greater transparency and accountability over the government’s response to the pandemic.”
You can read the decision in the attachment below. We will be publishing full details of the VIP lane bidders as soon as the documents are released to us.
I’m perplexed that for the last eight months it has been a Labour government fighting the release of these documents. Why would it do that?
The Johnson iteration of a Tory administration was a bunch of chancers, crooks and ne'er do wells. Well done to Democracy For Sale for not letting up in the pursuit of these fraudulent clampits. £10 billion plus in contacts to their mates or Tory donors scandalous. No doubt Johnson will say " nothing to do with me mate". To quote the prison guard in Monty Python's film " Life of Brian" " Crucifixion is too good for them sir". If so then a public stoning would suffice.