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25 Feb, 6 tweets, 2 min read
The news about Serco today will outrage taxpayers.

Its their money - meant to fund a contact tracing system which has never been up to scratch - that is now instead being paid to Serco shareholders via dividends. 1/6
ft.com/content/0dca97…
This is also the company, who said in a leaked letter, that Covid was an opportunity for them to cement themselves into our NHS supply chain. 2/6
theguardian.com/society/2020/j…
This whole saga is typical of this government’s appalling waste during the pandemic.

They should have done with contract tracing as was with the vaccine - placed it in the hands of our NHS and local communities, instead of using it to hand huge profits to Serco. 3/6
The government should have seen its failure on contact tracing coming..

Labour has exposed the issues for months, urging them to learn lessons from the collapse of Carillion. 4/6
huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/private-…
In August, @JonAshworth and I wrote to the government and called for the Serco contract not to be renewed, and to shift resources to local teams and NHS instead.

The government didn't listen. 5/6
If the government doesn’t want to keep seeing a repeat of this troubling pattern, they must drastically reform public service procurement.

A Labour government will. 6/6
theguardian.com/politics/2021/…

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More from @RachelReevesMP

Rachel Reeves Profile picture
16 Feb
What exactly happened with Public First yesterday, and revelations that both Dominic Cummings and Michael Gove were linked to a lucrative Covid contract awarded to them?

Discovering the truth of that has been months in the making. THREAD 🧵
In March, Public First won a contract for £840,000 - they ended up being paid around £500,000 - without tender or a written contract.

Both Gove & Cummings said they had nothing to do with the award, despite links with heads of Public First, including work on 2019 Tory Manifesto.
Then in May (around a month after Cummings made his infamous Barnard Castle trip), the contract was retrospectively awarded.

This is one of the troubling practices the National Audit Office highlighted in their report into pandemic procurement at the hands of this government.
Read 10 tweets
Rachel Reeves Profile picture
17 Jan
This Tory government is in denial about their incompetent preparations, and at the growing problems from the deal they negotiated with the EU.

Just like their handling of Covid-19, there’s no urgency either.

But the more they ignore issues the bigger they become. [THREAD]👇
Right now, the biggest industry the Tories have grown is red tape and form filling.

This is all adding to the stress, disruption and delays to British businesses which they can ill afford.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Having spent months talking up this deal as the saviour of British fishing, the problems that have followed have been a stark and concerning contrast.

More and more in the industry highlight the difficulties in selling to vital EU markets.
Read 10 tweets
Rachel Reeves Profile picture
13 Jan
This government’s procurement is an ugly mark on its pandemic response.

We’ve seen millions wasted on unusable PPE, a national Serco tracing system not reaching contacts it should, and a growing catalogue of cronyism.

But what's happened this week is a new low.
🔴THREAD🔴
This government outsourcing #FreeSchoolMeals leaves families with shocking replacements for normal vouchers. These photos are a disgrace.

But while they seem adamant to not feed hungry children, let's remind ourselves of contracts they have splashed on in recent months...
In April, the Tories gave £250 million to Ayanda Capital for 50 million face masks - which were later found to be unsafe for NHS workers.

Labour highlighted this as one of the early examples of cronyism given links to the Tory party.

theguardian.com/world/2020/aug…
Read 10 tweets
Rachel Reeves Profile picture
30 Nov 20
👥This week in cronyism - and it's not off to a good start.

Sometimes I think this Tory govt imagines we'll all just stop noticing their catalogue of cronyism. They seem to have nothing to say in response.

Stories keep unfolding - Labour will keep holding them to account. 👇
Shocking news just days ago that Hancock's former neighbour won a Covid contract despite no prior experience in medical supplies. He sent a Whatsapp message to the Health Sec. in March asking for a contract.

theguardian.com/world/2020/nov…
That's not the only crony story linked to the Health Secretary this month.

It has also been recently uncovered that he gave a key Covid role to lobbyist pal without even declaring any conflict of interest.

thetimes.co.uk/article/matt-h…
Read 9 tweets
Rachel Reeves Profile picture
29 Nov 20
We’ve been here before - the clock is running down for the Tories to reach a deal with the EU. Not getting a deal would be one of the biggest political failures of recent history. This degree of reckless incompetence with this Tory government cannot be ruled out.
To end up empty handed without a trade deal and with tariffs would essentially be economic sabotage of British manufacturing industries from their own government. Do Tory ministers care? The current Chancellor didn’t even mention it this week. Pitiful.
Back in February 2019, Michael Gove warned that farmers may never recover from a no deal scenario. Yet fast forward to now, and the added stress the Tories are putting many of our country’s farmers under is unforgivably cruel. scotsman.com/news/politics/…
Read 7 tweets
Rachel Reeves Profile picture
22 Nov 20
Another week in Tory government cronyism - and one where the term "chumocracy" is becoming far too familiar. A thread on what's been happening.👇
This isn't just a matter of waste or cronyism - it's a matter of public trust, and it has a huge impact on our public services. My piece this morning in @Independent lays out why this government has got to tackle this now.
independent.co.uk/voices/boris-j…
The health secretary is the latest figure today to face questions over ‘chumocracy’ as it turns out he quietly gave his university friend a job. Answers are urgently needed here.

thetimes.co.uk/article/matt-h…
Read 10 tweets

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