Thread by @JolyonMaugham

So just how big was the VIP lane?

Well, we know from the NAO report that there were 47 companies in it. nao.org.uk/wp-content/upl…

And we know that what Cabinet Office told the Public Accounts Committee was that the total value of contracts awarded through the VIP lane was £1.7bn (committees.parliament.uk/publications/4…).

We know civil servants complained that VIPs, largely introduced by Ministers says the NAO, inhibited their ability to source PPE.

The lives of doctors and nurses could well have been lost due to the politically connected wanting to make a quick buck out of human tragedy.

But how much did it cost us? Was it 'only' the £1.7bn Cabinet Office told the PAC?

Well, there are more revelations to come. But so far @GoodLawProject has revealed the names of six VIPs. goodlawproject.org/update/awarded…

The total value of the contracts won by the six was £1.172bn. If the six were representative of the 47 the total would be £9.18bn - a lot bigger than the £1.7bn figure given by Cabinet Office.

But however you do the maths it's hard to believe the £1.7bn figure can be right.

We may well never - barring a leak - learn the truth. Ministers don't want the embarrassment and won't tell you the names of their VIP friends who benefitted.

And there is now a suspicion, at least, that we have been misled about how deep was the trough.

This is really, really poor stuff.

And it isn't helped by rank dishonesty like this from Government's press statement yesterday (gov.uk/government/new…).

This too, in that self-same press statement, will, very soon, come back to bite Government. Early next week @GoodLawProject will send out (and this is no exaggeration) extraordinary unpublished materials to those on our free mailing list.

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