‘Fast-track Covid inquiry after court VIP lane ruling on PPE’

Covid public inquiry
PA Wire

Fresh calls were made on Thursday for the Covid public inquiry to be fast-tracked after the High Court ruled ministers’ “VIP lane” for multi-million pound PPE contracts was illegal.

In a damaging judicial review defeat, the Government was found to have acted unlawfully when handing out deals to family-run pest control firm PestFix and hedge fund Ayanda Capital to supply masks, aprons and gloves at the start of the pandemic.

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner seized on the ruling to call for the Covid inquiry “to start now” and include detailed examination of how PPE contracts were awarded.

“While hard-working NHS staff were going without PPE, Tory politicians saw an opportunity to line their cronies’ pockets,” she said. “A judge has now ruled the VIP lane unlawful but that may be just the tip of the iceberg.”

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said the VIP lane “must be part of the public inquiry into Covid” — in a process being chaired by Baroness Hallett and due to start work in the spring.

Campaign groups the Good Law Project and EveryDoctorUK brought judicial review proceedings against the Department for Health and Social Care.

Mrs Justice O’Farrell said Ayanda and PestFix would likely have been fast-tracked to deals worth nearly £600 million without the VIP lane, due to the amount of PPE they were offering at the height of the first Covid wave.

But she concluded the set-up — designed to handle PPE offers from contacts of ministers, senior officials, and MPs — was “in breach of the obligation of equal treatment” under public contract rules and amounted to “illegality”.

Ayanda and PestFix rejected accusations of “cronyism”.

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