Why the secrecy over mega-donor Frank Hester’s meetings with Tory ministers?

Government has repeatedly refused to respond to our requests for information about controversial donor who has received £400m in public contracts. Now we are taking action

Democracy for Sale has lodged a complaint with the information watchdog after the government repeatedly failed to respond to our request for information about meetings between Tory ministers and Conservative mega-donor Frank Hester, who was previously accused of making racist and misogynistic comments.

Hester’s company, IT contractor the Phoenix Partnership (TPP), has had numerous meetings with Conservative health ministers. TPP has been awarded NHS and prison contracts worth more than £400 million.

We requested the details of Hester’s meetings with ministers under Freedom of Information legislation: under the law, the Department for Health and Social Care should have replied within 20 working days.

But more than four months after filing the request, we are still waiting for a response. So we have complained to the Information Commissioner’s Office, who will now be investigating the case.   

Hester is one of the biggest donors in British political history, having donated more than £15 million to the Conservatives since 2023.

In March, the British Medical Association called on doctors to avoid signing deals with Hester’s company after the businessman was reported to have said that seeing Dianne Abbott on TV “made you want to hate all black women” and that the Labour MP “should be shot”.  

Rishi Sunak repeatedly refused calls to return Hester’s donations after his comments were brought to light by a Guardian investigation. 

It later emerged that the Tories even accepted £150,000 from Hester after his comments about Abbot were revealed. 

Hester’s firm has been awarded nine separate health service contracts worth £22 million since he began donating to the Conservatives. He met with at least two Tory ministers to discuss GP data - a major area of business for his TPP firm - according to government transparency data. 

We know something of Hester’s friendly relations with Tory health ministers. In 2022, Hester emailed then health secretary Steve Barclay to complain about his frustrations with a procurement bid just months after the pair met.

Democracy for Sale requested records of Hester’s meetings with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) under Freedom of Information legislation, including who was in attendance, what was discussed and whether conflicts of interest were declared. 

The government failed to issue any response to our request after more than four months - so we have taken the case to the Information Commissioner’s Office, - the UK’s secrecy watchdog, because of the exceptionally strong public interest in disclosure.

A politically connected firm has donated millions to the party in power, scooped up lucrative public contracts, and then met ministers to discuss relevant business issues.

The law is supposed to give the public the right to know what happened in such situations.

The government’s repeated failure to respond to our request for information about Hester’s meetings with Tory ministers is a tactic known as ‘stonewalling’, effectively refusing to even acknowledge a request has been sent or to answer follow-up questions.

Whitehall departments frequently ‘stonewall’ requests that carry a strong public interest. The department of health and social care’s refusal to comply is part of a wider trend toward government secrecy, which, as we have previously reported, has seen FOI transparency plunge to the lowest level since records began. 

Democracy for Sale has now lodged an official complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office and asked it to investigate the health department’s failure to respond. 

Sue Hawley, executive director at Spotlight on Corruption told this newsletter that “there are clearly very serious conflicts of interest at play when donors to the governing party win public contracts” and that “transparency is absolutely essential to prevent these conflicts festering.” 

“There need to be much tougher penalties on departments that refuse to provide information like this that is so critical to accountability in relation to public spending,” Hawley added. 

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