Government defends Hancock over shares in firm that won NHS contract

The government is facing fresh allegations of cronyism after it emerged that Health Secretary Matt Hancock and his sister have shares in a company that was awarded a contract with the NHS. 

Topwood Ltd, which specialises in the secure shredding and scanning of documents, is reported to have secured deals worth £300,000 with the health service this year.

Hancock declared that he had acquired more than 15 per cent of the company’s shares in the MPs register of interests in March. However, the register did not mention that his sister Emily Gilruth owned a larger portion of the shares and is a director of the firm, or that Topwood has links to the NHS.

According to the ministerial code, ministers should declare the interests of close family members if they believe they might give rise to a conflict. The government has defended Hancock, saying he acted “entirely properly” and that there was no conflict of interest because as Health Secretary for England, Hancock has no responsibility for NHS Wales.

The revelation brings Hancock back into the fold of an ever-growing scandal surrounding senior government figures and their commercial activities.

So far, the affair that started with David Cameron and his lobbying for Greensill Capital has drawn in Rishi Sunak, Matt Hancock and even raised questions about the activities of Boris Johnson, who – according to leaked messages to his senior aides – reportedly intervened in a Newcastle United takeover after he was personally lobbied by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

Labour has been quick to brand the lobbying scandal the “return of Tory sleaze”, but a YouGov poll released this morning shows that this line of attack is having little cut-through with voters, with the Conservatives doubling their lead over Labour in the space of a week.  

But the issue is quickly becoming wider than party politics – with several senior civil servants being dragged into the fold.

Yesterday the appointments watchdog said that Bill Crothers, one of Britain’s most senior former civil servants, breached government rules by failing to declare a trustee role he took up within a year of leaving his role as the government’s chief commercial officer. Crothers also started working as a part-time adviser at Greensill Capital while he was still a civil servant.

On Thursday night it emerged that a second Cabinet Office adviser was hired by Greensill Capital while working for the civil service. The Guardian reported that David Brierwood – a former Morgan Stanley banker – combined his role as a “Crown Representative” at the Cabinet Office with being a director for the supply chain finance business for three and a half years.

Labour may have lost a vote in the Commons earlier this week on whether to set up a dedicated parliamentary select committee to investigate government lobbying, but the ongoing revelations have prompted a flurry of different inquiries.

There is a Boris Johnson-ordered, Cabinet Office-commissioned inquiry, which he has asked senior lawyer Nigel Boardman to conduct. Labour have already described the inquiry as having “all the hallmarks of a Conservative cover-up” – pointing to the fact that Boardman was a partner at Slaughter & May, a law firm that lobbied against the then-PM David Cameron’s lobbying reforms.

The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, the Treasury Select Committee and the National Audit Office have also announced their intention to hold inquiries, while The Public Accounts Committee and the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee are also likely to investigate the matter.

With this many inquiries and brazen members of senior No 10 staff leaking to the press, the story is set to run right to the heart of Conservative government; whether they can continue to weather this level of negative press remains to be seen.