And now banged to rights by the National Audit Office (NAO) which, in a critical report, concluded that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) did not record properly why it awarded contracts worth nearly £500m to the healthcare firm, Randox.

Matt Hancock, the former health secretary, failed to notify his officials about private messages he exchanged with disgraced Conservative MP Owen Paterson, a healthcare firm’s paid lobbyist, the official watchdog has disclosed.

Will Lloyd unherd.com

The first lockdown deepened during a luridly warm spring. Strange things began to happen in England. Mr Motivator MBE returned to television, and a TikTok about pubs made young men cry. The middle-classes baked until the flour ran out; the bus drivers, cabbies and chefs contracted the virus, then died. The rich just became richer; they were like the aristocrats who viewed Borodino’s bloodbath from the heights. But strangest of all was the daily, hourly, minute-to-minute ubiquity of Matt Hancock.

Long before SARS-CoV-2 was a twinkle in the eye of a Wuhan cave bat, Hancock worked on the student radio station at the University of Oxford.  A contemporary, Gina Coladangelo, reminisced that Matthew read the sport “because he wasn’t good enough to do the news.” Another remembered Hancock as the “butt of everyone’s humour”. He wanted to go to Westminster and be an MP.

He nearly blows himself up. Guildford, 2001. Young Matt does an election leaflet for the Tory candidate Nick St Aubyn. Instead of saying that St Aubyn wanted to “unite” the community, a 22-year-old Hancock writes: “I want to untie the community”. The leaflet lands in 50,000 letterboxes. St Aubyn loses his seat by 538 votes.

Shortly after becoming a junior minister, Hancock compares himself to Pitt the Younger, Disraeli, and Churchill; their achievements are quite well known, but he will make history on his own terms in 2018 when he becomes the first MP to launch a personal app: The Matt Hancock App.

Its creation leads to the memorable onscreen prompt “Matt Hancock would like to access your photos”  — and he appears to get them even if users deny the ‘The Matt Hancock App’ access to their libraries. A spokesman for the Information Commissioner’s office admits, “We are checking reports about the operation of The Matt Hancock App”.

In a party where the average age of a member is 72, Hancock appears young and bright. He is marked out by the early patronage of Osborne, who says of his protege: “In a political system that is full of Eeyores we could do with a few more Tiggers.”

That nickname fits well. Tigger Matt has the tamped energy of the short man, over-exercised. Enthusiastic; readily and sycophantically agreeable. His colleagues mock him — Matt Wankcock and Matt Handjob will be insider nicknames for him — but they are usually reluctant to fire him, even when it makes sense to do so.

***

As the Conservative Party tortures itself in 2019, Hancock decides he would like to be leader. Or raise his profile. So he attacks Boris Johnson and a hard Brexit: “To the people who say fuck business, I say fuck fuck business.”

He fuck fuck’s himself into sixth place in the first ballot of the party’s MPs. Then he withdraws; he spends a month on television and radio praising the new leader… Boris Johnson. Hancock expects a promotion for his breathy verbal parkour. He keeps his job as Health Secretary instead.

To run the NHS is no Conservative’s idea of a dream. Neville Chamberlain was the last Tory Health Secretary to become Prime Minister. The service itself is a patched-up patchwork, a tax sink, an organisation colossally vast and maddeningly confusing. Hancock’s real brief is to make sure the whole thing doesn’t fall apart when people are looking.

The pandemic is the greatest health crisis to face Britain since mad George III thought that an oak tree in Kew Gardens was Napoleon’s ambassador. Fate, or a lab-leak, means that soon everybody will look at the NHS.

***

A relaxed, Prime Minister-less COBRA meeting is held at the end of January 2020. After chairing it Hancock tells reporters the risk Covid posed to the public was “low”. On the same day a study published by Chinese doctors in The Lancet suggests SARS-CoV-2 is comparable to the 1918 Spanish flu, which killed around 50 million people.

The risk to the UK is deemed so low that on 24 February the Government supplies 1,800 pairs of goggles, 43,000 disposable gloves, 194,000 sanitising wipes, 37,500 medical gowns and 2,500 face masks to China. Looking back at meetings that month, one senior Department for Health official remembers thinking “‘Well, it’s a good thing this isn’t the big one.’”

***

A clip of Boris Johnson, patiently explaining possible Covid strategy to fellow scientific luminary Phillip Schofield goes viral. “One of the theories,” Johnson had said on March 5, was that “perhaps you could take it on the chin, take it all in one go and allow the disease, as it were, to move through the population, without taking many draconian measures”.

Loo paper soon begins to disappear nationwide. Hancock is rolled out — he was always being rolled out, like a new carpet to be trodden on — into a breakfast TV studio to deny that the Government wanted to massacre the Grannys. “Our goal is to protect life and our policy is to fight the virus.”

Then Neil Ferguson releases his controversial paper. It claims hundreds of thousands will die if Britain is left to take the virus on the chin. Sage advises the Government to embark on a full lockdown that day.

It arrives on 26 March 2020, as Covid cases double every 72- hours. Between 89% and 94% of the public support lockdown. And the Grannys? Care home deaths accounted for 40% of Covid-19 deaths in England and Wales during the pandemic.

***

Like other ministers, after the passage of the Coronavirus Act, Hancock develops war fever. “Our generation has never been tested like this”, he writes to a nation frantically, pointlessly washing its hands. “Our grandparents were, during the Second World War, when our cities were bombed during the Blitz… they pulled together in one gigantic national effort.” The allegory is both ugly and lazy, but Britain is a country where poppies are made to wear poppies.

***

Prince Charles opens the first Nightingale Hospital at the ExCel centre in London. He says the Nightingale “will be a shining light”. The hospital is constructed in nine days, and holds 500 extra intensive care unit beds. (For every hundred thousand members of the population the UK has 7.3 intensive care beds — less than Spain, Greece, and Estonia. This lack of provision will mean more deaths.)

More Nightingales open across the country. They cost the taxpayer £500 million pounds. Only three of the seven hospitals end up treating patients. They are described by one MP as a “massive white elephant conjured up by Matt Hancock to create a good headline”.

***

It’s not really worth it, going outside. A family of five is sent home by the police in Conwy after being caught having a day at the seaside. They scuttle back to Merseyside. Police in Derbyshire “divide opinion” when they use drones to film people walking in the Peak District. A “major incident” is declared when thousands travel to Bournemouth beach, to swim, eat ice cream, and burn in the sun. (Belatedly, it is revealed that the “major incident” did not lead to a spike in Covid cases.)

Speaking to Andrew Marr, a concerned Hancock threatens to ban outdoor exercise. “Let’s not have a minority spoiling it for everybody.”

***

Nothing works properly. The Test and Trace App doesn’t work. PPE doesn’t work — because it’s all out of date. Protecting care homes doesn’t work. Dido Harding doesn’t work. The Civil Service literally doesn’t work. Big-hitter commentators start saying that the entire British state doesn’t work. It is described as “simultaneously overcentralised and weak at its centre”.

But ‘The Matt Hancock’ app still functions. In May 2020 the Telegraph reports that it is becoming a “virtual home for online pranksters and trolls”. Posts to the ‘Have Your Say’ section include drawings of cocks, general abuse, and a date invitation for the (then) married Health Secretary.

When ‘The Matt Hancock’ app is updated a year later, access to the ‘Have Your Say’ section is hidden. One of the last posts read: “Is there a portal on here where I can be awarded a Government contract for an area I have little experience of scale please?”

***

Hancock always looks caught between a giggle and a sob. A new round of Covid restrictions makes casual sex illegal. Or at least that’s how Sky News’ Kay Burley interprets the guidance when she interviews him about it. “You are saying that no social distancing is needed in established relationships,” she notes. “But what about people who are not in an established relationship?”

The Health Secretary, embracing his role as national sex cop, confirms that Government rules do ban shagging someone who is not your normal partner. Apropos of nothing, he adds that, fortunately “I’m in an established relationship”.

A few weeks later, the Times reveals that Gina Coladangelo was appointed to a £15,000-a-year advisory PR role in the Health Ministry. The appointment was never declared. Coladangelo and Hancock are described as “close friends”. A source tells the paper: “Before Matt does anything big, he’ll speak to Gina. She knows everything.”

***

He appears to cry on television when the first Pfizer jabs are stuck into the arms of two pensioners: Margaret Keenan and William Shakespeare. “It’s been a tough year for so many people,” he sobs, rubbing his waterless, unreddened eyes.

The Government spends £12 billion on vaccines. Total pandemic spending is estimated to reach £372 billion. Research finds that under-30s will be disproportionately forced to bear the brunt of these costs. They are described as the “packhorse generation”. The median age of death from Covid is 83 years old. There is no national discussion, parliamentary inquiry, or interest from the Government in working out how the old can make it up to the young.

William Shakespeare dies naturally within a few months of taking the vaccine.

***

In January 2021, a week after the virus death toll tops 100,000, a focus group asks some ordinary people questions about the Health Secretary. A man called Jason compares Hancock to Ian Beale from Eastenders — “He wants people to feel sorry for him.” Asked what sort of car he would be, mother of two Donna suggests that he would be “something that breaks down.”

***

During a committee hearing Dominic Cummings says that Hancock should “have been fired for at least 15, 20 things, including lying to everybody on multiple occasions in meeting after meeting in the Cabinet room and publicly”. Cummings then puts a WhatsApp screenshot on his blog that shows the Prime Minister describing Matt as both “hopeless” and “fucking hopeless”.  When he is interviewed about the message, Hancock says: “Boris has apologised for the way that came over.”

***

The story and the footage and the photo are exquisitely simple. After nearly 18 months of tiers, colour-codes, R-numbers, powerpoint slides, and graphs, here is something everyone could understand: a hand on an arse.

Yes, Hancock’s downfall was exquisitely simple. His affair with Gina Coladangelo was unambiguous. It made sense like fairy tales make sense. The Princess in the tower must let her hair down. The wolf is wearing sheep’s clothing. The apple offered by the witch is poisoned. The politician who spent the pandemic agitating for the harshest restrictions, who would describe Professor Neil Ferguson’s lockdown sex fiasco as a “matter for the police”, who ensured that the public could be fined for sitting on park benches, who threatened them with 10-year prison sentences for breaking quarantines, this ogre of the new common sense, would — of course! — be breaking all his rules.

The press is devastating, and relentless. With a deep understanding of public humiliation, the Queen describes Matthew as a “poor man”. He resigns, his only consolation being one of the most Googled news stories of 2021.

***

Hancock keeps coming back, like Covid. His head pops out of the ground. Phillip Schofield asks him: “Was it your dyslexia that meant you misread the social distancing guidelines?” The nation laughs, bitterly. It is reported that, off air, Hancock “almost seemed euphoric… He didn’t seem to mind being the butt of the joke.” He has returned to his student days, but made them the business of the entire country. He buys stonewashed jeans, and new turtlenecks. He does podcast interviews, and goes to the BRIT awards. He says he is writing a book for Harper Collins. Harper Collins says he is not writing a book for Harper Collins, and Hancock never mentions it again. A role with the UN is torpedoed, and a comeback video — unanimously described as “cringe” — is swiftly deleted. It is impossible to tell, as with England’s experience of three lockdowns, whether he is enjoying all this, or if he is the saddest man in the world.

***

Everybody wanted a lesson from the last 24 months. Neat, comprehensible wisdom. An intelligible narrative. They wanted to say that it finally proved that Germany was a better country than England, or they wanted to say that our vaccine programme proved the EU was useless. They thought England’s experience of Covid could tell us about the national character, the flaws in our state, or otherwise be used to justify every kind of pet project, ideological hang-up, or personal vendetta. There was no narrative line. All that the pandemic proved was that what happened a hundred times before in history could happen to us too.

***

The number of children referred for specialist mental health help rises above one million for the first time in 2021. Cases involving those 18 and under increase by 26% during the pandemic. The Royal College of Psychiatrists warns it is “becoming an impossible situation to manage”.

People, including Hancock, like to talk about learning the lessons of the pandemic. So we can prepare better for the next one. They don’t realise that between the million mentally hamstrung teenagers, the NHS waiting list hitting 9.2 million within two years, an endless backlog of cases in criminal courts, and inflation, that the pandemic hasn’t ended yet. It’s barely started.

26 March 2020 — 26 March 2022

Plymouth councillor quits Conservatives amid ‘bullying’ claim

Carl Eve www.plymouthherald.co.uk 

Plymouth’s Lord Mayor has quit the Conservatives accusing the new leader’s regime of “bullying”, just two days after he was voted into the top job. Councillor Terri Beer departure from the group to go Independent came with a blistering attack on new leader Richard Bingley’s Cabinet.

The long-standing Plympton Erle councillor accused Tory group members of “mentally torturing” ousted leader Nick Kelly, who was toppled on Monday, and said she couldn’t work with “people who have a record of doing some questionable things”.

Cllr Bingley told PlymouthLive tonight he was “mystified by the allegations” and said Cllr Beer was “unhappy that her friends were voted out.” But her resignation is a major blow to the ruling Conservative group, who now find themselves with fewer councillors than Labour in the run-up to the local elections in May

Cllr Beer’s decision to leave the party has – yet again – left the city in a position where the ruling Conservative party has 22 councillors, while Labour have 23 and the Independents rise to 12 members. Hers just the latest in a string of resignations among Tory councillors over recent months.

Cllr Terri Beer, who is Lord Mayor until May, presided over Monday’s full council meeting which saw a no-confidence vote brought by Plymouth Labour and backed by a number of Independent councillors – particularly some who had previously been Conservatives themselves. However, at the close of the meeting, while receiving a number of plaudits and thanks from councillors on all sides, Cllr Beer appeared to have been considering her future.

Taking to Facebook this evening she issued a statement – which appears to have been written on Tuesday March 22 – “which will explain why I am no longer part of the Conservative group in Plymouth.” She noted that she remained “very close friends” with Conservative ward councillor Andrea Loveridge and would continue to “work for our residents.”

She continued: “Having reflected on recent events I have no option but to resign from the Conservative Party and the Local Conservative Group. I cannot continue to be associated with questionable people and bullying under the new leadership.

“I really fear for Plymouth under a cabinet who are lacking in experience and ability. It would not feel right to stay in a group with people who have a record of doing some questionable things.

“The Conservatives locally have been run into the ground by unelected chair persons not from South West Devon. Brilliant and well experienced people have been denied the opportunity to serve communities because their face didn’t fit or they failed to to follow the chairperson’s misguided instructions.

“Cllr Kelly has over the last two years been mentally tortured by certain members all of whom need to bow their heads in shame. It hasn’t just stopped at Cllr Kelly but others in the Conservative group have also suffered. If only the public had the full story.

“As from today I will be the first Independent Councillor to be Lord Mayor and will complete my term as just that. In the last 11 months I have dedicated myself to serving the City and being an Ambassador which is why I swore an oath at last year’s Lord Mayors Choosing.

“Cllr Nick Kelly has always been very supportive of me and my decisions alongside Cllr Tudor Evans and several members of the opposition for which I thank them. At yesterday’s full council Cllr Kelly praised me for the work I have done to date in my role as Lord Mayor and I acknowledge his kind words and that of Cllr Evans.

“This last 11 months I have had everything thrown at me from tragic incidents in the City to joyous events and have carried this out with dignity. The residents in Plympton Erle who know me so well will understand and accept the family pressures I have faced through family illness.

“I will continue to serve Plympton Erle residents as I have for the last 15 years following my year as Lord Mayor as an Independent.”

In reply, Cllr Bingley told PlymouthLive: “I and my colleagues are mystified by the allegations of bulling, because we’ve not had any dialogue [with Cllr Beer] since Monday because Cllr Beer was clearly unhappy that her friends were voted out of office. Nevertheless, I personally wish her well in the future and look forward to taking this opportunity to bring in fresh new blood into the Conservative party and the council chamber.”

In February the Conservative group saw the ousting of Cllr David Downie after he was deselected by the Conservative Moor View Association – rather than the Conservative Councillor Group. The previous month the Conservative Group saw the resignation of Cllr Stephen Hulme.

Last October Moor View’s Shannon Burden waved goodbye to the Conservative group and joined the Independents, while in November Conservative councillor Nigel Churchill walked away from his group citing “unacceptable” conduct of senior members.

We really are returning to a darker world – Owl

P&O Ferries boss admits firm broke law by sacking staff without consultation

Gwyn Topham www.theguardian.com 

P&O Ferries broke the law by choosing to sack 800 workers without consultation because “no union could accept our proposals”, the firm’s boss has admitted.

Peter Hebblethwaite told a Commons hearing on Thursday into last week’s firings that the firm was halving its costs under a “new operating model”, which meant international seafarers would be paid less than minimum wage.

Fresh questions also arose about what warning ministers had received of the sackings, after Hebblethwaite said P&O’s parent company, DP World, had told the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, of planned changes to its business model in November.

Hebblethwaite faced an intense examination at a joint hearing of the transport and business committee. The business committee chair, Darren Jones, opened by asking about Hebblethwaite’s recent rise to the chief executive position at P&O: “Are you in this mess because you don’t know what you’re doing, or are you just a shameless criminal?”

Hebblethwaite apologised but said the firm had “otherwise had no future”.

Later he admitted: “There’s absolutely no doubt we were required to consult with the unions. We chose not to do that.”

Andy McDonald MP interjected: “You chose to break the law?”

Hebblethwaite said: “We chose not to consult … and we will compensate every one in full for that.”

McDonald said: “You can’t just absent yourself from the legal framework of the UK.”

Hebblethwaite replied: “It was our assessment that the change was of such magnitude that no union could accept our proposals.”

The P&O boss said the average sacked seafarer on the previous Jersey contracts was paid £36,000 per year.

The replacement crew will receive an hourly rate starting at £5.15, except on the Larne-Cairnryan route between Northern Ireland and Scotland, where it will be bound by UK minimum wage law.

He told MPs he was “saving the business”, adding: “I would make this decision again, I’m afraid.”

Hebblethwaite said he was paid £325,000 with two performance-related bonuses, although he said he “did not know” if he would accept a bonus this year. He did not answer when asked if he could could sustain his own lifestyle on £5.15 per hour, the rate paid to the new crew.

McDonald asked: “How do you expect them to be able to feed their families and pay their bills? It’s incomprehensible that you have broken the law as a business decision.”

Hebblethwaite admitted people were cancelling their trips, especially on the Dover-Calais route: “Some people certainly have.”

He added: “There’s no question the brand has taken a hit. But we now have a competitive, modern business. We have a future now. We don’t have to close the business. I am, again, incredibly sorry.”

Incredulous MPs asked Hebblethwaite to confirm his earlier testimony. Gavin Newlands asked: “What employment law provisions have you breached?”

Hebblethwaite said: “We have not consulted, and for that we are fully compensating people.”

Jones later asked: “You said to this committee you wilfully broke the law …”

Hebblethwaite responded: “I completely hold our hands up that we chose not to consult.”

Hebblethwaite told the MPs that Shapps was informed on 22 November by P&O Ferries’ parent company, Dubai-owned DP World, that it would be changing its business model.

Appearing later in the hearing, Robert Courts, the maritime minister, said: “There was a discussion about challenges to the business but not any more than that.” He said he would send a copy of minutes of the meeting with Shapps to the committee.

Asked if the government intended to prosecute P&O Ferries, the business minister Paul Scully said they were still awaiting guidance from the Insolvency Service, and investigating whether the company had broken the law. But, he added: “You’ve absolutely heard that he has.”

On employment law, he said: “We’ve heard that they have deliberately, wilfully broken the law. That will be for workers and their representatives to address.”

The transport committee chair, Huw Merriman, closed the hearings by describing the evidence as a “tale of corporate thuggery where a huge company thinks it can break the law with impunity”, adding that he hoped the government would seek swift legal remedies against P&O Ferries and legislate to tighten up law.

Unions called for the government to issue an immediate injunction to prevent the ships sailing and reinstate sacked crew. The RMT general secretary, Mick Lynch, said: “This should include the government seizing control of the ships if necessary. We are also calling for the immediate disqualification of Peter Hebblethwaite as a director after he admitted the company broke the law and would do it again.”

Lynch had told the hearing how sacked staff were given until today to accept payoffs, on the basis of non-disclosure and an agreement to forfeit any further legal action.

Legal experts also told the committee that P&O should have notified their ships’ flag states in Cyprus, Bermuda and the Bahamas between 30 and 45 days in advance – rather than on the day.

After the hearings, the Liberal Democrats said Shapps had “serious questions to answer about what he knew and when about P&O’s plans to shamefully sack its workers”.

The transport spokesperson, Sarah Olney, said: “It looks increasingly like Grant Shapps was asleep at the wheel, and missed vital opportunities to intervene and protect people’s livelihoods.”

A Department for Transport spokesperson said DP World did not tell Shapps of “any changes it would be making to P&O Ferries” nor give an indication of the “completely unacceptable changes it has subsequently made”.

Private emails reveal Michael Gove’s role in Tory-linked firm’s PPE deals

Michael Gove was secretly involved in the process through which a PPE company linked to the Tory peer Michelle Mone secured huge government contracts, according to newly released documents that show private emails being used for government business.

David Conn www.theguardian.com 

The correspondence threatens to embroil Gove in the deepening controversy surrounding PPE Medpro, the company awarded government contracts worth £203m after it was referred to the “high-priority lane” for well connected companies.

They will also add to the growing scepticism over Lady Mone’s repeated insistence that she was not involved with the company, and cast further doubt on statements made on her behalf by her lawyers. Her relationship to PPE Medpro is under investigation by the House of Lords commissioner for standards.

In one key email, sent on 8 May 2020, Mone proposed supplying large quantities of PPE face masks to the government, saying they could be sourced through “my team in Hong Kong”.

The email was sent to Theodore Agnew, a fellow Tory peer who was at the time a Cabinet Office minister responsible for procurement. Mone copied Gove in to the email, telling Agnew that Gove had asked her to “urgently” contact him.

Mone used her private email address, writing to Agnew at his private email address linked to his Norfolk private estate. She copied in Gove via his private Gmail account.

The Guardian was only able to establish that non-government emails had been used because of an apparent administrative error by the Cabinet Office, which failed to properly redact documents released after a freedom of information request (FoI) from the Guardian.

The information commissioner, John Edwards, is investigating the use of private emails at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) during the pandemic, including by then ministers Matt Hancock and Lord Bethell.

While it is not in itself unlawful for ministers to use private emails, there is strict guidance on ensuring it is done in accordance with transparency laws, and Edwards’s predecessor, Elizabeth Denham, expressed “concern” and “worry” at the practice.

The emails released under FoI reveal how Mone laid out a sales pitch to Agnew for the supply of PPE. The government had by then suspended normal competitive tendering processes and, it would later emerge, was fast-tracking to a “VIP” lane offers of PPE referred by politically connected people.

“I hope this email finds you well,” Mone wrote to Agnew, copying in Gove. “Michael Gove has asked to urgently contact you [sic]. We have managed to source PPE masks though [sic] my team in Hong Kong. They have managed to secure 100,000pcs per day of KN95 [face masks] which is equivalent to N95 or FFP2. In order to commit to this 100,000pcs per day could you please get back to me asap as freight will also need to be secured. Hope to see you in the House of Lords when we get out of lockdown. Kindest Regards, Michelle.”

Agnew replied from his personal email address, copying in the government email address of his private secretary. “Michelle, Thank you for your kind offer. I am forwarding this into the appropriate PPE workstream with Dept of Health. They will ask you some basic questions on the details of the offer and then hopefully progress it from there. Best wishes Theodore.”

One of his staff then emailed a Covid PPE “priority appraisals” mailbox, asking them to “pick up with Baroness Mone”. The staff member added the words “VIA LORD AGNEW” and “VIP” to the subject field.

Within weeks, PPE Medpro was awarded two government contracts worth £203m to supply millions of face masks and sterile surgical gowns.

Mone has repeatedly distanced herself from PPE Medpro, despite leaked documents and WhatsApp messages, seen by the Guardian, appearing to suggest that she and her husband, Douglas Barrowman, were secretly involved in the company.

Lawyers representing Mone said the Guardian’s reporting was “not based on accuracy”. They have repeatedly said she “was not connected to PPE Medpro in any capacity”, had no “association” with the company and “never had any role or function” in the process by which contracts were awarded to the firm.

Barrowman’s lawyers have similarly distanced him from the firm, but they have not denied that he benefited financially from PPE Medpro’s business.

The Lords standards commissioner, Martin Jelley, is investigating Mone for “alleged involvement in procuring contracts for PPE Medpro, leading to potential breaches” of three provisions of the Lords code, which requires peers to publicly register “all relevant interests” and prohibits them from lobbying for a company or a person in which a peer “has a financial interest”. Mone denies she broke any rules.

The newly released emails, in which Mone offered PPE sourced by “my team”, raise several new questions for the peer, who was previously involved in the lingerie company Ultimo before David Cameron appointed her to the House of Lords in 2015.

Her lawyers have previously said her involvement in PPE Medpro did not extend beyond a “very simple, solitary and brief step” of referring the company to “the office of Lord Agnew”. However, the emails suggest that it was not a solitary step, because she had already made contact with Gove , and she did not refer the company to Agnew’s office, but to his personal email address.

She also did not technically refer PPE Medpro – which, at the time of the email, had not been incorporated as a company. Instead she referred to PPE that would be supplied by “my team”.

(Link to pdf of original documents here.)

Agnew declined to respond to questions about the issue, explaining that he had recently been interviewed by the Lords commissioner on the matter and had been asked to keep his evidence confidential.

Gove also declined to answer several questions from the Guardian, including about why he was Mone’s first point of contact. A government spokesperson said all emails were dealt with appropriately because they were passed on to officials, and contracts were awarded “in line with procurement regulations and transparency guidelines, and there are robust rules and processes in place to prevent conflicts of interest”.

A lawyer for Mone said there was “nothing new” or “sinister” in the new emails and accused the Guardian of having a “deliberate and vexatious interpretation of them, characterising them in a wholly negative manner”.

The lawyer did not respond directly to questions about the newly released emails, or about a previously disclosed civil servant’s email that appears to show that Mone was still lobbying government officials nine months after she first made contact.

The email was sent to colleagues by Jacqui Rock, the chief commercial officer for NHS test and trace, in February 2021. She revealed that Mone had been contacting officials on behalf of PPE Medpro, which appears to have been seeking government contracts for the provision of Covid tests.

In the email, published by the government last month, Rock told fellow civil servants: “Baroness Mone is going to Michael Gove and Matt Hancock today as she is incandescent with rage on the way she believes Medpro have been treating [sic].”

Burrington Estates Property Development Company!

From a Correspondent:

If you want to be aware of the epitome and personification of two-faced, hypocrisy, exhibiting double standards beyond belief . . . then read on!

How ironic it is to view the YouTube footage (below) of last week’s EDDC Planning Committee meeting (on 16th March 2022) where an Application (21/2989/FUL) for a demolition and re-build in West Hill Road, Ottery St Mary was recommended for approval by East Devon’s Development Manager and after discussion was subsequently approved by the Planning Committee.

(see Planning Committee Discussion/Decision on 21/2989/FUL – located 1hr/05mins into the meeting).

However, living next door to this new-build in West Hill Road, Ottery St Mary and vehemently objecting at the meeting to his neighbour’s proposals was a Director and Property Development Manager of Burrington Estates Limited.

He contributed as one of the opposition speakers, strongly objecting to this two-storey new build that he felt impacted on his adjoining property. He had previously instructed Burrington Estates’ associate professional planners (Avalon Planning) to object on his behalf to this application and consequently a complex list of executive-level planning objections had been prepared within an 8-page submission that was published on EDDC Planning Portal in the documents file for 21/2989/FUL.

Below are some of the objections included on the vast list submitted:-

Overdevelopment of the site with an appearance of cramming, resulting from the excessive scale, mass, height and form of the new development; inappropriate density and incongruous to the immediate surroundings; design is too contemporary with uncharacteristic design, shape, massing and finishes for the locality;  adverse effect on neighbouring property with overlooking, overshadowing and loss of daylight affecting both the home and garden by being too overbearing; too close proximity to existing neighbours detrimentally affecting the amenities enjoyed specifically concerning  privacy, outlook and artificial light spill; contrary to the character of the area; removal/loss  of trees that make a significant contribution to the character and ecological value of the local area; failing to protect the area’s cherished features; development in too close proximity to mature trees resulting in pressure to lop, thin or fell protected species in the future; loss of verdant character and appearance of the area; lack of respect for the key characteristics of the area, particularly the woodland character and the low density plots; detrimental removal of boundary vegetation/trees to provide additional access; unacceptable impact on neighbouring property with no thought minded to neighbours whose outlook and sense of comfort within their home and garden will be detrimentally impacted; increased heights creating additional viewpoints into private gardens and habitable rooms of neighbours; inadequate provision of parking for the new development;  contrary to the Neighbourhood and EDDC Local Plans et al.

At this point, Clyst Valley Road residents in Clyst St Mary will definitely have a feeling of déjà vu because the above objections are almost identical to those that the residents of Clyst St Mary have submitted in opposition to the 40 (equivalent to 5-storey) apartments, with associated service road and multiple parking spaces that Burrington Estates (including the above-featured Property Development Director) have proposed adjacent to residents’ Winslade Park homes and gardens that will tower above the existing woodland area (which provides screening to their homes) and encroaches adjacent to their boundaries  . .  and furthermore Burringtons intend cutting down significantly more TPO protected trees than one West Hill Road cherry tree to achieve these incongruous 40 multi-storey flats on a limited car park site!

Such behaviour seems to display a double standards attitude being practised by property developers and the old adage ‘Practise What You Preach’ comes to mind!

The residents of Clyst St Mary have always been of the opinion that appropriate quality development in a small rural village adjacent to existing homes is acceptable – but can anyone else highlight where 40 (equivalent to 5-storey) flats exist in a small East Devon pastoral settlement – because such designs are, surely, more fitting in an urban locality?

To end on a positive note, both Burrington’s Development Director and the residents of Clyst St Mary obviously are in complete agreement on what should and should not be built next to our homes both in West Hill, Ottery St Mary and the village of Clyst St Mary.

So this would seem a good place to point out that Burringtons should follow their own advice (that was voiced at the meeting on 16^th March) to withdraw the current application in favour of a new application that is far more suitable for the locality and apply those principles to their Winslade Park Zone D application.

In 2020 residents supported Burrington’s design proposals for 14 traditional homes for this Winslade Park car park (that were displayed to all at the Public Consultation at the Village Hall) as highly sustainable and appropriate – but unfortunately Burrington Estates subsequently decided to substitute the 14 homes with 40 towering (equivalent to 5-storey) multiple-occupancy flats, resulting in entirely different plans being submitted to East Devon Planners in this location. These inappropriate plans are still awaiting a decision by EDDC Planners but are due to be heard by Committee in the near future and it is hoped that elected and professional local authority planners will agree that looking forward multi-storey flats do have a developmental role and  place  –  but that place is not in the village of Clyst St Mary!

There is no doubt that when property development encroaches into anyone’s back yard – then it becomes a personal issue – people and, indeed, most species are innately territorial.  It is a human trait to passionately defend our homes (and that is seen as a worthy characteristic) and most people will display some NIMBYism in similar circumstances.

However, to inflict incongruous development on a community when you have a personal,  professional awareness of the plethora of detrimental issues that will harm other people is both unacceptable and totally hypocritical – so shame on you Burringtons – what goes around comes around . . . and sometimes fate will make you face your own personal nemeses!