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13 Sep, 5 tweets, 2 min read
EXCLUSIVE 🚨 Thousands of people with COVID-19 are taking tests that will never be analysed, warn government docs marked "official sensitive"

Our "world beating" testing programme has a 185,000 swab backlog and is so stretched it's sending tests to labs in Italy and Germany 1/5 Image
Most UK laboratories are clearing fewer tests than their capacity, as they are hit by “chaos” in supply chains, per the leak

The govt claims it has capacity for 375,000 tests a day

But the actual number of people being tested for coronavirus is closer to 62,000 a day (2/5)
Randox, a Northern Ireland firm, pays Tory MP Owen Paterson as a consultant. It won a £133m testing contract unopposed at the start of lockdown

It disposed of 12,401 used swabs in a single day on 2nd Sept

The firm has voided more than 35,000 used test kits since August (3/5)
Officials and labs are blaming each other for the chaos. Tests are mostly voided because of “swab leaks” or damage during transit

It was claimed last night that thousands of kits have had to be voided in a lab in Germany because they were transported at the wrong temperature 4/5
Compare what the government says about its testing programme with the apparent reality based on these leaked files here.

Scoop with the brilliant @TomCalver2

5/5
thetimes.co.uk/article/leaked…

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More from @Gabriel_Pogrund

Gabriel Pogrund Profile picture
2 Aug
Exc🚨A former Labour official behind the BBC Panorama on antisemitism has revealed he was the subject of a criminal investigation until last month

Sam Matthews was summoned for an interview under caution in the dying days of Corbyn leadership after a complaint by the party

1/5
Labour reported Matthews to ICO, which has powers to investigate criminal breaches and bring prosecutions leading to prison

It accused Matthews of breaching Data Protection Act by accessing/leaking data to the media

The stories concerned Labour's handling of anti-semitism

2/5
ICO criminal investigations team told Matthews on 19 Feb “You are now suspected of a criminal offence” and cautioned him

However, they dropped the investigation after he challenged the basis of their inquiries. ICO had to admit it had no evidence he unlawfully obtained data

3/5
Read 5 tweets
Gabriel Pogrund Profile picture
20 Jun
EXCLUSIVE: Robert Jenrick watched a promo video of £1bn Westferry scheme for "3 or 4 minutes" at Tory dinner on Richard Desmond's phone, billionaire confirms in extraordinary rare interview

Weeks later, Jenrick overruled officials to approve it

thetimes.co.uk/article/robert…
Desmond tonight backs "pro-building" Jenrick, says he has done nothing wrong and there's nothing corruption about attending a dinner

He instead blames Sadiq Khan, who he accuses of duplicitiously U-turning on the scheme

Story by me @TomCalver2 @GeorgeGreenwood @ManuMidolo 2/14
Jenrick's decision to approve scheme came the day before a new community impact levy kicked in, saving Northern and Shell £40m

He also waived affordable housing rules, saving ~£106m more

It is the only time that Jenrick has rejected official advice and approved a scheme

3/14
Read 14 tweets
Gabriel Pogrund Profile picture
18 Jun
EXC: Here's an overview of Labour Together's inquiry into 2019 election defeat, overseen by MPs incl Ed Miliband, per source

It addresses threat posed by Boris Johnson, Labour's relationship with working class, what went wrong under Corbyn and long-term trends since Blair

1/10
The report is split into three parts: i) data, polling, survey results, ii) the campaign, iii) the way forward

Says biggest factors in election loss were Brexit ‘by a country mile’, Corbyn's unpopularity and too many policies.

But Brexit also "catalysed" long term trends

2/10
such as no difference b/w the parties from Blair onwards, de-industrialisation, no offer of big change from Labour.

The report mentions a correlation between disunity and Corbyn's popularity/unpopularity.

In 2019, Labour lost 1.7m Leave voters and 1m Remain voters.

3/10
Read 11 tweets
Gabriel Pogrund Profile picture
14 Jun
EXC 🚨 Here are declassified StB intelligence files revealing how Geoffrey Goodman, a Fleet Street titan and confidante to Harold Wilson, spied for the Warsaw Pact.

Firstly, a delightful morsel contained in his 1,600 page archive: his old business card.
Goodman met StB spies for the first time in 1955

His file is opened soon after, with his DOB, address and background

A Jew from Stockport, he grew up in poverty but studied under Harold Laski at LSE, got "excellent grades" and fought in WW2

He is given a codename: AGENT GUSTAV
Goodman starts meeting his handlers at the Gay Hussar, the Charing Cross Hotel and restaurants on Charlotte St.

Then a News Chronicle reporter, he provides gossip on Labour and unions

Handlers say he's "phlegmatic, reliable and candid" - and struggling to pay kids' school fees
Read 13 tweets
Gabriel Pogrund Profile picture
29 Mar
Scoop: Leaked plan reveals Keir Starmer's provisional team as Labour leader. It's set to include:

- Morgan McSweeney, campaign manager, as chief of staff
- Ben Nunn, current spokesperson, as director of comms
- Claire Ainsley, of Joseph Rowntree Foundation, policy head

1/6
- Helene Reardon Bond, currently Corbyn's office manager, as joint deputy chief of staff

- She will serve alongside Chris Ward, political adviser

Team Starmer declined to comment. Source close to him said appointments “basically confirmed” but no offers formally made yet

2/6
Elsewhere, Rachel Reeves is allegedly in the running for shadow chancellor.

She is said to typify Starmer's approach. "Young soft lefties who are brainy, who most people don’t recognise and who haven't spent last few years doing factional stuff."

3/6
Read 6 tweets
Gabriel Pogrund Profile picture
5 Jan
THREAD: I spoke to friends, former colleagues and MPs for this long read on Rebecca Long Bailey

A leaked CV reveals that she only joined Labour and a trade union after the 2010 general election

Here's the story of her rapid and extraordinary rise
thetimes.co.uk/article/rise-a…
RLB was apparently so aware of her inexperience that in her selection interview she said she voted for Ed Miliband in 2010 leadership race

Paul Wilson, who chaired it, recalls: “She was asked, ‘Are you sure?' She said, ‘oh, I must be getting mixed up.’ She said she was confused”
But Long Bailey - who was a solicitor living in Frodsham, Cheshire and involved in her local party - had cleverly aligned herself to Unite

At the time, McCluskey was aggressively backing his own candidates after feud with Miliband.

Unite threw the kitchen sink at her candidacy
Read 9 tweets

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