Transparency UK chief Daniel Bruce has spoken out about the VIP lane the Conservative government implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic, saying they were unable to find another system like it anywhere else in the World.
A new report published by the anti-corruption organisation has uncovered corruption ‘red flags’ in government contracts handed out during the pandemic worth more than £15 billion.
The review of more than 5,000 contracts across 400 public bodies identified 135 high-risk contracts where investigation was merited due to the identification of three or more corruption question marks.
At least 28 contracts worth £4.1 billion went to people with known political connections to the Conservative Party, accounting for almost a tenth of the money spent on the pandemic response as a whole.
Fifty-one contracts, meanwhile, went through the “VIP lane”, of which 24, worth £1.7 billion, were referred by politicians from the Conservative party or their offices.
The UK government also awarded more than £30.7 billion in high-value contracts without competition – equivalent to almost two-thirds of all Covid contracts by value.
Speaking to James O’Brien on LBC, Bruce said his organisation was unable to find examples of a similar system used during the pandemic anywhere else in the world, highlighting the scale of the potential corruption under the Conservative government.
Watch the interview in full below:
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