Thread by @allthecitizens

🚨EXCLUSIVE: What do Paul Dacre’s son, Andy Wigmore and major Tory donors have in common? They’re all linked to new Covid-19 testing companies.

At least 9 Covid-19 Travel Testing companies on the government approved list have strong political affiliations. THREAD:

… this despite only a few having had long-standing roles in healthcare/lab testing services as @BylineBITE and @allthecitizens can reveal:

Hundreds of travel test companies have popped up on the gov approved list, along with claims of unfulfilled or dumped tests, poor reviews, and under-qualified companies.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

This weekend, it was reported the new Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, asked the competition watchdog to investigate “excessive” and “exploitative practices” among PCR Covid test companies.
bbc.co.uk/news/business-…

In addition to many non-politically-linked firms who, as per the government website, only just ‘demonstrated compliance with the applicable minimum standards’, our research has shown that some in the political arena have profited from the scramble for travel testing.

First, former-LeaveEU Campaigner Andy Wigmore was found to hold shares in a Covid-19 testing company which sells kits for international travel.

Breathe Assured Ltd, featured on the list of government approved providers, trades on Companies House under the name Medical Assured Group Ltd, based in Bristol.
…te.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/129911…

The company, incorporated in November 2020, sells a variety of PCR and Lateral Flow testing kits for travel abroad, as well as “air purifiers”.
breatheassured.com/shop/

Of the 100 shares listed on the first company accounts filings, 4 major shareholders are listed including Little Tew Ltd (20) and T.Chesser Ltd (28).

The sole director of Little Tew Ltd, which according to Companies House listings specialises in “media representation services”, is Mr Andrew Bruce Wigmore.
…te.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/129722…

And T. Chesser Ltd is a small firm run by Breathe Assured director Tim Chesser, who appears to specialise as an orthopaedic trauma consultant in Bristol.
orthopaedictrauma.org.uk/2019/bio/chess…

Chesser is also the director of another firm, Vavista Ltd, owned by Sally Chesser and LeaveEU’s Arron Banks. Tim Chesser previously held directorship of another ‘Medical Assured’ iteration, Medical Assured Ltd, incorporated in 2014 and dissolved in 2016.
…te.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/082670…

Andy Wigmore posted getting into the testing business on Instagram from the chalet in Switzerland he was in during December, before deleting his Insta account entirely.
independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…

We also found that Paul Dacre's son, Alex, is the Chief Exec of Marlowe Plc. a firm that owns Black and Banton - a Covid Testing company. Marlowe Plc was owned, until 2020, by former Conservative Party chairman Lord Michael Ashcroft.

Black and Banton Occupational and Physical Health Ltd is ultimately owned by Marlowe Plc. According to Bloomberg, Marlowe is ‘an investment company’.
bloomberg.com/profile/person…

Marlowe’s profits in the year to March 2021 reportedly rose by 31 percent, despite the pandemic. business-sale.com/news/business-…

Alexander Peter Dacre is the son of former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre. Alexander, age 33, is currently listed as a director of 79 companies. heraldscotland.com/news/14653774.…

Another Conservative donor, and member of the Tory donors body ‘The Leaders Group’, Stephen Catlin, also holds directorship of a testing company, Qured, listed on Companies House as Health Technologies Ltd.
…te.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/104083…

While Qured themselves have been incorporated since 2016, Mr Catlin was only made a director of the company on the 21st of April 2020, according to Companies House records.
…te.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/104083…

Catlin has maintained donations to the Conservative Party since 2010 right up until Feb 2021, typically giving large donations of £50,000. During this time he’s given £450,000 to the party.

Next, RT Diagnostics, incorporated on the 2nd of July this year, is run by investment firm Crossley Investments. Crossley’s director is Labour councillor for Calderdale Mr Faisal Shoukat, who also personally sits with significant control of RT.
…te.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/134909…

Online Clinic (UK) Limited, founded by Robert MacKay, also features on the list. A smaller donor than some of the others, A Robert T MacKay also gifted £2,000 to the Conservatives in 2018, and in 2015.
…te.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/051229…

MacKay was also featured in an open letter to the Telegraph in 2019 of businesses which backed Brexit. He describes himself on Twitter as a ‘Scottish Tory living in London. Medical Entrepreneur’.
caltonjock.com/2019/11/17/lis…

In a statement to @allthecitizens, MacKey said “all contacts between my company and the department have been at civil service rather than political level, there has been no political contact in relation to this matter or indeed any of my business interests over the years”

Then there’s WestEnd Medical Practice, run by Mohammad Ashraf Chohan. Mr Chohan chairs Conservative Friends of the NHS, was co-chair of the Conservative Asian Link from 2005-2013, and works with CCHQ as ambassador to the Leaders Group.
cfonhs.com/2020/11/25/dr-…

For his part Chohan is actually a doctor. And West End Medical has been operational since 2009. This is unlike other businessmen on this thread who have no medical experience and sit on the board of new companies.

Chohan made the news in March of this year, when the Mail reported that he was one of a number of Conservative donors to have funded £12,500 worth of food deliveries to Boris and Carrie Johnson.
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9…

Variously, a Mr Ashraf Chohan, Dr Ashraf Chohan, and one Mohammad Chohan, have donated to both Labour (£152,822) and the Tories (£22,040) since 2005, although donations to the Conservative Party represent the most recent contributions.

Many companies featured on the gov testing list do not have the capacity to PCR test and sequence themselves, and are mainly vendors, pushing back this task to more specialist groups that have the capability. These appear on the government list underneath the company names:

There are only a few of these specialist companies in operation. The main ones include: Randox, Excalibur, Dante Labs, Oncologica, Biograd, Nationwide Pathology, Alpha Biolabs, YourGene, and Source Bioscience.

One of these companies in particular, Source Bioscience, owned by Christopher Mills, has strong links to the Tory Party. Mills runs two diagnostics firms, Source Bioscience and EKF Diagnostics, who as well as offering services to travel test companies both won Covid contracts.

Source Bioscience, a Nottingham-based laboratory services provider, won two large contracts from DHSC between May 2020 and Feb 2021. The awards, worth some £11m, were to provide PCR testing services within the health service.

The company also provide testing services for travel vendors like Breathe Assured. As their website states they “have been at the forefront of the forefront of the testing programs; run by DHSC, NHS, Private Healthcare and many commercial clients”
sourcebioscience.com/covid-19-testi…

Mills sits as one of several directors of Source Bioscience. The company is also majority controlled (29%) by an investment group called Harwood Capital Management, who’s founder and CEO is Mills.
sourcebiointernational.com/shareholder-in…

Harwood is also one vessel Mills has used to donate to the Conservatives, and between 2013-2019 used it to donate £10,000 to the party.

EKF were awarded a £1.2 contract from Public Health England to provide “Primestore Transport Media in custom tubes to fast-track Covid-19 testing, bringing the total gov contracts won by Mills to over £12m.
find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/001908-…

Mills, a prominent Brexiteer and former UKIP deputy treasurer, has also used Harwood to gift large sums to the fringe party. But his record of donations is far more extensive…
search.electoralcommission.org.uk/?currentPage=1…

As well as gifting £2,500 to the Tories personally in 2019, another entity owned by him, Growth Financial Services Ltd, has, between 2005-2019, given the Tories a further £135,000, including £25k directly to Michael Gove. GFS also frequently gift to UKIP
mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/a…

In the case of another PCR testing company - Randox - links between the company and the Conservative Party have been well documented.
theguardian.com/world/2020/nov…

While there’s no assertion political ties helped the above individuals get on the gov list of approved testing companies, the concern - as the Health Secretary has raised - is a lack of oversight, with pricing of tests resembling more a Wild West scenario than anything else...

While the government websites claims it does not “endorse or recommend any specific test provider”, a spokesperson for DHSC stated “the government closely monitors the performance of these providers to ensure they deliver a high quality of service”

They added that “anyone who has concerns about the trading standards of an individual company may wish to contact their local trading standards office:
gov.uk/find-local-tra…

For the full @BylineTimes write-up from @jwsal and @MC_00_, please follow the link below:

bylinetimes.com/2021/08/09/the…