Tory claim is that corruption was justified because we needed PPE.

I spoke to a PPE supplier on Sunday who’s been supplying the NHS for years.

He said existing suppliers were ready but were ignored by the gov.

This is a story of corruption AND incompetence It really annoys me when commentators make grand claims having done zero research.

The NAO reports are clear: ministers reacted too late, massively overpaid for equipment, created a system with crap due diligence, and didn't deliver the goods quickly enough. End of story.

🔴 NEW for @BylineTimes 🔴

The minutes & correspondence from Boris Johnson's meeting with Cambridge Analytica in 2016 would directly harm UK-US relations if they were released, we have been told.

bylinetimes.com/2023/01/26/min… 🧵 The ICO said that the information would “directly undermine the trust and confidence between the UK and US”.

A thread of some of the shocking stats emerging from the budget...

Someone earning £1 million-a-year will be receiving a £55k tax cut – twice the average UK salary The richest 5% of households will receive 50% of the overall benefit of the government's tax cuts

The Conservatives encourage people living overseas to apply for party membership, via Cities of London & Westminster Conservative Association.

This Conservative association says explicitly that "You do not have to be eligible to vote in the UK to join the Conservative Party". I've asked the Conservative Party to explain what processes are in place to ensure that foreign actors are not able to join the party en masse in an attempt to influence internal party processes – including a Conservative leadership election.

🔴 NEW 🔴

@BylineTimes did some Brexit polling with @Omnisis and the results are *fascinating* 👇🏻👇🏻 🇪🇺 64% of people say that they would support a new EU referendum within 10 years.

That includes 40% of 2016 Leave voters and 40% of 2019 Tories.

Politicians tell us that we live in a meritocracy and yet the Bank of Mum & Dad is the UK's sixth largest lender, relied on by 49% of first-time buyers.

People not being able to get on the housing ladder without parental help is having a massive impact on social mobility. Especially when our economy is so heavily concentrated in one ludicrously expensive city – London.

We're basically creating a system where the nation's wealth can only be accessed by people lucky enough to inherit property in the capital.

I'm biased, but we've had some top class investigative stories on @BylineTimes this week.

Starting with our research into the 22 Tory donors who tried to influence Monday's confidence vote... We also dug into the murky world of Tory auctions, where access to ministers is sold to the highest bidder.

📝 @MC_00_
bylinetimes.com/2022/06/07/bla…

Corruption in Britain – in three stories.

You won't find much clearer evidence than this. 🔵 Story 1 🔵

Companies owned by Conservative Party donors win government contracts worth £1 billion during the pandemic. Often without competition.

bylinetimes.com/2021/03/29/map…

Tory poster from the 2019 general election.

We’re governed by con-men and fraudsters. And here's the chief scam artist making that promise on national radio...

https://twitter.com/Angry_Voice/status/1435247178319081477?s=20

GB News is owned by a firm called 'All Perspectives Limited'.

50% of the directors are not listed as living in Great Britain.

75% of the individuals/companies with significant control of shares are not based in Great Britain. Details below.

One Andrew Ferguson Neil is listed as living in France.

…te.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/122277…

Don't mean to be a buzz killjoy... but I find this Hancock/Topwood thing a bit tenuous.

The firm won deals worth £300k from NHS Wales, which is a devolved body. Welsh Health Secretary Vaughan Gething is the minister responsible The company has also been put on an £8m framework that potentially provides the opportunity to supply services to NHS England – alongside lots of other companies.

But this is just a shortlist – there's no evidence it has won any work on this framework yet hsj.co.uk/finance-and-ef…

There’s a statue of George Orwell outside the BBC because he warned starkly and eloquently about the very threats now posed by Boris Johnson’s regime.

I spoke to @campbellclaret for @BylineTV 👇🏻👇🏻
◼️ HOW is Boris Johnson still ahead in the polls?

◼️ What’s wrong with the media?

◼️ How bad is the situation in Northern Ireland?

Hear more from @campbellclaret on all of the above here 👇🏻

You can see why Andrew Neil thinks conservatives are under-represented in the UK, given we only have the Sun, the Express, Daily Mail, Telegraph, Times, UnHerd, ConservativeHome, LBC, talkRADIO, IEA, ASI, CPS, Taxpayers’ Alliance, and an 80-seat-majority Tory government Not forgetting of course that the director general of the BBC is a former Conservative councillor and its new chairman donated £400,000 to the party.

Cancel culture in action.

bylinetimes.com/2021/01/06/new…

Not to alarm anyone but I'm looking through Home Office credit card data and someone spent £3442 in Primark In addition to £712.50 at Homebase, £504.99 at Halfords, £619 at "Heatbusters" (whatever that is), and £559.98 at Screwfix.

I have no idea what Priti Patel has got planned but I don't like the look of it

I have been trying to get a measure of the government's PPE procurement splurge for the past couple of months.

The amount of cash shelled out to private sector firms is mind-boggling.

Here's a thread of what I've uncovered with @BylineTimes 🔽 💵 £70 million contract for face masks
🟦 To a luxury packaging firm with £46k in the bank

bylinetimes.com/2020/10/08/70-…

So I used to run the social media accounts of a BBC political debate programme.

This post blatantly violates BBC editorial guidelines

https://twitter.com/bbcquestiontime/status/1230625055803133953

For those asking.

1. The lady says something that is misleading - that immigrants sponge off the state. At the very least that is highly, highly questionable.

2. If you still publish the clip, you need some sort of alternative opinion or fact checking to provide another view.

Steven Edginton is not a journalist - he’s HEAD OF DIGITAL at the Brexit Party.
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7… He has worked for the Taxpayers’ Alliance and put in an appearance at the launch of Turning Point UK with Arron Banks and Nigel Farage.

Attempts to spin him as a journalist are frankly ridiculous.

Full profile here from @joeevanswrites scramnews.com/steven-edginto…