Frank Hester, the healthcare tech tycoon, who has given a £5m donation to the Conservatives earlier this month,

One of the Tory Party’s biggest donors has profited from £137m of contracts from the Department of Health and Social Care in under four years, it has been revealed.

Frank Hester, the healthcare tech tycoon, who has given a £5m donation to the Conservatives earlier this month, has received around £800,000 a week to his company, The Phoenix Partnership (TPP).

The Good Law Project which made the findings, reported: “The contracts under which the payments were made have not been published on the Government’s official procurement website, Contracts Finder, but the DHSC claims the payments were made under a published ‘contract framework’ and that there is no requirement to publish individual contract awards.

“The accounts of the holding company, which is 100% owned by Frank Hester, reveal that he was paid £10m in dividends last year. In December last year Frank Hester wrote: “We are here for our NHS. We are here to help, not drive profits for shareholders or to grease revolving doors.”

The Guardian also reported on the story and said that TPPs ‘main operating company, the Phoenix Partnership (Leeds), recorded a turnover of £75m, with profit before tax of £47m in the year to March 2022, Companies House documents show’.

“It paid dividends during the year of £10m to its parent company, which is ultimately owned by Hester, and a salary of £515,000 to him, its sole director.”

Jo Maugham, the director of the Good Law Project, said: “Once you see how much Mr Hester gets from an NHS that is desperately starved of money, you can understand why he is so committed to the government that lets him.”

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

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