Tory minister Chris Grayling faces calls for a probe after naming a company linked to donations to him as a "preferred bidder" on lucrative contracts.
Tory minister Chris Grayling faces calls for a probe after naming a company, linked to major donations to him, as a “preferred bidder” on seven contracts awarded by his department, the Mirror reported today.
Deloitte Ingeous are set to win multi-million-pound government deals to get benefits claimants into jobs.
The Mirror report:
“Another off-shoot of City giant Deloitte sent staff to work in his office two years ago and he had to declare the £27,978 donation-in-kind in the register of MPs’ interests….
“Labour MP John Robertson demanded a probe after a charity in his Glasgow constituency lost out to Deloitte Ingeous. He said: “To be honest, this whole process stinks.”
Number 10 said the rules were followed and the Department of Work and Pensions commented:
“Any accusation of a ministerial conflict of interest is absolutely ludicrous.”
As the Mirror point out, this latest news comes after it was revealed last week that:
“Care UK landed a £53million NHS contract in the North East. It came after Health Secretary Andrew Lansley took a £21,000 donation to help fund his office before the last election from City fatcat John Nash – then a senior figure at Care UK.”
This prompted the Mirror to state:
“Huge bundles of taxpayers’ cash finding its way into the coffers of companies with close links to the Conservatives is raising questions which must be answered.
“We’ve heard the excuses but now voters deserve to see all of the facts.”
47 Responses to “Welfare minister faces calls for a sleaze probe”
Crony capitalism alive and well under the Conservatives | Left Foot Forward
[…] departments, lobbyists and the corporate world, after welfare minister Chris Grayling faced calls yesterday for a probe into donations he received before the election from firms involved in competing for […]
Carolyn Anderson
Welfare minister faces calls for a sleaze probe | Left Foot Forward http://goo.gl/GSnQn
Scary Biscuits
“We’ve heard the excuses but now voters deserve to see all of the facts.”
Well, precisely. There’s no evidence above that he has broken the Ministerial Code or was even involved in the decision to name the preferred bidder. Simply donating to a political party shouldn’t disqualify you from winning government contracts although it certainly needs to be done in the open.
Calm down, dears.
Tweet4Labour
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Daniel Pitt
Welfare minister faces calls for a sleaze probe: http://bit.ly/h6D7xo #ConDemNation