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Dominic Cummings: Government illegally outsourced friends of Johnson's ex

2021-06-09T22:35:47.756Z


The British government was looking for an agency to determine sentiment about the pandemic policy. However, she did not tender the contract - instead, illegally awarding it to acquaintances of the then chief advisor Cummings.


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Dominic Cummings (archive image)

Photo: UK PARLIAMENTARY RECORDING UNIT HANDOUT / EPA

Dominic Cummings was forced to leave his post as Boris Johnson's chief advisor at the end of 2020.

He has been an opponent of the British Prime Minister since then (read more here).

A court in London has now dealt with the relationship between the two.

According to this, the British government illegally awarded a contract to a company owned by friends of Cummings last year.

Judge Finola O'Farrell of the London High Court ruled that the company should not have received an order for the corona pandemic without a tender. At the same time, however, she admitted that a quick decision was necessary in the exceptional situation at the time.

The market research agency Public First, which is headed by former colleagues from Cummings and Minister of State Michael Gove, was supposed to investigate, among other things, public sentiment about pandemic policy for the government in June 2020.

The contract, valued at 560,000 pounds (around 650,000 euros), had not previously been put out to tender.

Against this, activists of the Good Law Project sued, who saw it as a case of nepotism.

Cummings has already made grave allegations against Johnson and government officials for dealing with the pandemic and funding the prime minister's luxurious official residence.

Johnson is said to have financed the renovation work temporarily through party donations, without properly disclosing this.

An internal report confirmed that Johnson did not violate the code of conduct for members of the government.

An investigation by the electoral commission is still ongoing.

Minister must testify before the House of Commons committee

Health Secretary Matt Hancock will have to answer questions from parliamentarians on Thursday.

The members of the House of Commons health and science committees in London are concerned with the government's handling of the corona pandemic.

It is expected that the questions will primarily focus on the decisions on the corona lockdowns in spring and autumn 2020 as well as on crisis preparation and the effects of the delta variant.

The government had been accused of reacting too late to the spread of the virus and waiting too long with exit and contact restrictions.

In his questioning by the same committees two weeks ago, Cummings attacked the Minister of Health Matt Hancock in particular.

The minister has lied and failed repeatedly, said Cummings.

as / AFP / dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-06-09

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