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17 Nov, 8 tweets, 2 min read
Michael Gove, Matt Hancock and the former chairman of the Conservative Party are among ten Tory politicians who helped PPE companies to secure £1.6 billion in government contracts via a special "VIP lane" thetimes.co.uk/article/ten-to…
Gove recommended Meller Designs, which is run by David Meller – a Tory donor who contributed £3,000 to the communities secretary’s 2016 leadership campaign and has given £60,000 to the party in total

Meller’s company landed £160 million in PPE deals
Other Tory politicians on the list include Lord Feldman of Elstree, a former Tory party chairman, who is already facing questions over contracts awarded to Bunzl Healthcare, a client of his lobbying firm Tulchan Communications
Feldman recommended three companies, including Skinny Dip, a fashion brand that makes Hello Kitty-branded clothing, which was awarded a contract of almost £13 million
Matt Hancock, the former health secretary, recommended four companies, including a maker of educational furniture called Monarch Acoustics and a Chinese e-commerce firm called Nine United
Dominic Cummings referred Global United Trading to the VIP lane, helping it to secure two contracts worth nearly £800,000
Baroness Mone, a Conservative peer, referred PPE Medpro to the VIP lane

The company was awarded £200 million worth of contracts
The list of 47 companies was leaked to the website Politico after the Department of Health refused to publish the names when it received a freedom of information request from The Times last December
thetimes.co.uk/article/ten-to…

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16 Nov
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16 Nov
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