High Court ruling raises further questions over contracts row
Jim Tait
The SNP has criticised the UK government for wasting taxpayers’ money defending its handling of multi-billion-pound Covid contracts, following a High Court ruling.
Health secretary Matt Hancock was found to have acted unlawfully when his department failed to reveal details of multi-million pound contracts it had signed.
The judge stated that Mr Hancock had “breached his legal obligation” by not disclosing the details within 30 days of contracts being signed. It was reported he had spent around £207,000 of taxpayers’ money fighting the case.
The SNP said the episode raised further questions over the Tory government’s handling of contracts it had awarded without following proper procedures.
Local candidate Tom Wills said: “This damning ruling raises further questions over how the Tories spent billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money to apparently reward party donors, friends and acquaintances with lucrative contracts which they failed to tender or carry out due diligence.”
Anne Gair
Matt Hancock = £207,000 of taxpayers money. I think if ministers are using taxpayers money for their own benefit which seems to be quite clear in this respect then it should be used as a loan from the public and we should be able to charge bank rates for the said loan! It would make them stop and think about what they are doing and make them more careful on how they spend OUR HARD EARNED MONEY!