Thread by @allthecitizens

Last night @allthecitizens found a 1/3rd billion gov contract won by a company linked to Conservative donor Lord Ashcroft.

£350m Covid19 award goes to company run by Impellam, where former Tory treasurer has ‘significant interest’. THREAD:

Recruitment firm Medacs Healthcare won the 17 Dec contract to “support medical and clinical services in laboratories” & assist “national testing programme in response to Covid-19”. It’s the 3rd largest Covid-related single award seen by @allthecitizens contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/4276227…

Medacs Healthcare is part of the Medacs Global Group, owned by parent company ‘Impellam Group’. Impellam’s main shareholder & Chairman is Conservative donor Michael Ashcroft. He’s donated £176,104 to the Tories since the pandemic began and £851,029 since 2001.

Lord Ashcroft is listed as having ‘significant influence’ over Impellam. In addition, 56% is owned by the Lombard Trust. In 2010, Ashcroft transferred the 26m shares he held in Impellam to the Lombard Trust; the beneficiaries are his children. …te.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/065119…

Medacs Healthcare is majority owned by Medacs Global Group, which is majority owned by Impellam Group. Medacs Healthcare has also won other Covid contracts: £357,830 on 2 smaller awards to supply temporary health personnel and also was part of two large group contracts.

The £1/3rd billion contract is by far the largest single contract awarded to Medacs in 5 years. Since Aug 2015, Medacs has won at least 29 NHS and care contracts; 20 were high-value group awards (but only one of these group awards exceeds the £350m single issue contract).

Medacs claim to be “the largest provider of on-framework locum doctors to the NHS”. In 2019 they reported a turnover of £89.6m, with £3.6m profits declared.

Their owner, Impellam, lists among it’s directors Conservative peer Baroness Tina Stowell of Beeston. She once was Deputy Chief of Staff for William Hague when he was Leader of the Conservative Party, and was Head of Corporate Affairs at the BBC.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Lord Ashcroft has donated £176,104 to the Conservative party, including £100,000 to their candidate for 2021 London Mayoral election, Shaun Bailey.

Over the past 20 years he has donated £851,029 to the Tories and is amongst the top 10 donors to the Party in recent years. Treasurer of the Conservative Party (1998-2001), his political influence extends today to owning ConservativeHome.com
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…

Ashcroft has long retained “non-dom” status as a citizen of Belize. In 2017, it was reported that Ashcroft, in the Paradise Papers coverage, had been ‘sheltering his wealth’ in offshore havens.
theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/…

An entity called the ‘Lombard Trust’ also appears in the offshore Panama Paper leaks, although as no listed address is given it can’t be confirmed this is the same Lombard as operated by Lord Ashcroft.
offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/12039356

In 2020, Ashcroft wrote an open letter to Boris Johnson suggesting the NHS should collectively receive the George Cross for their work battling Covid. He described it as “the best way of rewarding such commitment and public service”.
conservativehome.com/platform/2020/…

In 2018, he announced an as-yet-unreleased “no holds barred” book into the NHS. Amazon listed that it sets out to ask the question “how good really is the NHS and can it cope with the formidable challenges it faces?”

The contract awarded to Medac appears to be the 3rd largest single UK contract issued yet since the pandemic began. The others were won by Innova Medical Group Plc (£496m) and Primer Design (£406m).

Medac’s owner, Impellam, operates ‘14 market-leading brands across 106 locations’. In 2019 it reported an annual revenue of £2,254.8 million.
impellam.com/our-brands/med…

There is no claim Lord Ashcroft, Impellam, Medac or anyone linked to these companies and their subsidiaries have acted illegally in this contract procurement. We do not know if this contract benefited from the ‘VIP fast track lane’ that has been granted to some Covid19 contracts.

.@openDemocracy has also covered this story today. It can be read here: opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…

The Department for Health and Social Care spokesperson told them: “As part of our response to this unprecedented global pandemic, we rightly have drawn on the expertise of a number of organisations to support this important work.”

The DHSC went on: “This includes when establishing the largest diagnostic network in British history, and a test and trace system used by tens of millions of people to reduce rates of Coronavirus. Proper due diligence is carried out on all government contracts.”

Lord Ashcroft, Medacs and Impellam have yet to publicly comment.

Does this story concern you? Can you help @allthecitizens reveal more concerning Covid-19 contracts lacking possible due diligence and oversight? If so, please see the thread below to find out how you can help contribute and hold power to account:

https://twitter.com/allthecitizens/status/1319601008457154565?s=20

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