🚨NEW: Last week the UK Health and Security Agency published contracts for the purchase of Lateral Flow Tests (LFTs) worth £980 million.
Those contracts follow a shortage of LFTs in December as cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 spiked. @BylineBITE / @allthecitizens 🧵
The majority of the contracts were given to INNOVA MEDICAL GROUP, a US-based company who have been the primary supplier of LFTs to the UK since the start of the pandemic.
The company who has won the most in pandemic-related contracts from the UK government, Innova won £752 million in LFT contracts on December 17. The largest of these was for £322 million. So far, INNOVA have won at least £4.3 billion in UK contracts for Lateral Flow Tests.
🚨NEW: £20m in donations have been given to the Conservatives from opaque dining societies, business collectives and members clubs since 2010, 68% coming from just 29 groups, @BylineBITE and @allthecitizens can reveal. THREAD.
Donations from unincorporated associations (UAs) to the Conservative Party, groups which often don’t declare membership, climbed to £20 million over the last decade. Vastly outpacing donations from similar groups to other parties.
Our research shows that while Labour have secured £8.5 million, the Lib Dems £5.2 million, the Conservatives have amassed £20 million, mostly from just 29 orgs, many of which are exclusive members clubs, dining societies, and opaque collectives of Tory voting business interests.
Britons are braced for the Bank of England to increase interest rates on Thursday as the central bank seeks to tackle price pressures that have pushed annual inflation to a 30-year high of 5.4%. theguardian.com/business/2022/…
The energy regulator Ofgem is expected to announce a new price cap on Thursday, a figure that is likely to push more than a quarter of British households into fuel poverty. news.sky.com/story/new-ener…
Around 22 million households will see their energy bills rise to an average of £1,971 a year after regulator Ofgem increased its price cap by £693. news.sky.com/story/cost-of-…
During his Commons statement and responses following the release of the Sue Gray #Partygate update, the PM repeated a variation of the pledge to “stand up against Vladimir Putin” several times.
But how able is the country to do that under a government led by Boris Johnson? 🧵
When the Intelligence and Security Committee report into Russian interference in UK public life arrived in 2020 - months late - it contained numerous examples of Russian state-linked efforts to undermine democracy.
Among them, oligarchs close to the Kremlin buying political influence and engaging in ‘illicit financial dealings’
Just in case you need evidence that the #partygate ever happened, before it gets buried in some dusty shelf at the #Met for the foreseeable future and disappears from memory, we have kept the receipts for you @receiptkeepers