Upminster company makes millions after being fast-tracked for PPE contracts.
Uniserve is based in Hall Lane in Upminster.
A company based in Upminster has secured government contracts worth more than £800 million via a controversial ‘VIP’ system.
Uniserve did not have to compete for PPE contracts, worth more than £300 million, despite having no previous experience supplying the equipment according to an investigation by the Good Law Project.
The logistics firm was also given a £572 million contract to provide freight services for the supply of PPE and has seen its profits rise from £1.1 million in 2018 to £38.1 million in June 2020.
It is one of several businesses that were awarded contracts through a ‘VIP’ fast-track system, meaning they were referred to the Department of Health by an associate of a government minister or adviser.
The company is based at the same address as MP and Cabinet Office minister Julia Lopez in Hall Lane, Upminster.
Julia Lopez MP with Uniserve founder Iain Liddell.
Uniserve has more recently been at the center of a PPE storage scandal in Suffolk that has been costing the government £1 million a day.
The Department of Health paid the logistics firm around £124 million for “storage costs” and “other programme expenditure” between June and September 2021.
An investigation by East Anglia Bylines found this was to pay for large amounts of unused PPE stuck in shipping containers near the Port of Felixstowe.
It discovered so much excess equipment came into the port that thousands of containers had to be moved to several sites across Suffolk.
A report by Transparency International UK found the way the government responded to bids for PPE contracts was “partisan and systemically biased in favour of those with political access”.
It looked at nearly 1,000 contracts worth a total of £18 billion and said: “critical safeguards designed to prevent corruption were suspended without adequate justification”.
“It is very surprising that the UK Government prioritised recommendations from politicians given that in most other areas of economic activity this type of association raises red flags and triggers further scrutiny, not the opposite, and they are not known for their expertise in procuring medical equipment,” read a statement in the report.
“What is even more surprising is that it did not engage professionals, such as the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Nursing, who had obvious expertise and a ready supply of offers from trusted suppliers that could have helped deliver critical materials during this crisis period.
“Adopting such an approach adds credence to the view that cronyism determined the award of contracts, rather than suitability for the job.”
Mrs Lopez has not responded to a request for comment.
The sh1t must surely hit the fan when all this stuff comes out.
There's a renewed focus in the papers on Sir Geoffrey Cox's work outside Parliament.
Analysis by the Guardian has found the Conservative MP has earned at least £6m from his second job as a lawyer since entering Parliament in 2005.
The paper says records show he skipped 12 recent votes in the Commons on days when he was doing paid legal work.
The Daily Mail puts the former attorney general's outside earnings at £5.5m for 10,700 hours of work.
Sir Geoffrey did not respond to the Mail's questions about his earnings - but in a statement on his website said he "makes no secret" of his outside work.
The Daily Mirror says Sir Geoffrey "rakes in" around £1,000 a week for a property he lets out in Battersea in south London.
He also submits claims for £1,900 a month to rent a second property in the city. This continued when he was reported to be working in the Caribbean.
Sir Alastair Graham, a former former Standards Committee chairman, said the former attorney general's actions were "totally wrong". But "astonishingly," the paper says, the arrangement is within Commons rules.
The i reports that the chief whip, Mark Spencer, is "in peril" for authorising Sir Geoffrey's trip to the Caribbean.
But, according to one Tory MP, Boris Johnson is unlikely to sack Mr Spencer because it may call into question his own future - as the chief whip is supposed to be the last person standing in government.
So is this Caribbean tax haven (Geoffrey Cox's paymaster) a sunny place for shady people? British Virgin Islands' ruling elite have been accused of presiding over a country 'plagued' by political corruption and cronyism, writes TOM LEONARD
Tory MP Sir Geoffrey Cox was becoming frustrated as he defended the British Virgin Islands' government against allegations of corruption, abuse of office and serious dishonesty. It was a Wednesday last month and the full-toned barrister was appearing - remotely from the UK - before a commission in the British Overseas Territory that is backed by the Foreign Office to investigate the claims. The former British attorney general, who usually earns nearly £1,000 an hour for his legal services, couldn't hide his annoyance that his day in court wasn't going entirely his way. Perhaps it is unsurprising that tempers were flaring as there is a huge amount at stake.
How to earn £5.5million: Geoffrey Cox has spent 10,700 hours 'moonlighting' since 2009... the equivalent to FIVE YEARS of working a full-time job
Cox devoted almost 30 hours a week to his legal work in some years, earning an average of more than £500 an hour, according to the Commons Register of Interests.
Speaker hits out at ex-MPs' Commons passes: Lindsay Hoyle orders review into access given to former members after they step down
The Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has demanded an end to the practice of handing parliamentary passes with privileged access rights to ex-MPs who work as lobbyists.
Did lockdown loophole let Geoffrey Cox dodge travel ban? Former attorney general is thought to have used flaw in lockdown laws to fly to Caribbean when almost all foreign travel was banned
Sir Geoffrey Cox has so far refused to clarify exactly when he was in the British Virgin Islands to work on his lucrative second job.
Sorry, gotta go: Under-fire Boris abruptly ends COP26 press conference after just 22 minutes as he refuses to apologise for Owen Paterson and Tory sleaze debacle and insists MPs' second jobs 'STRENGTHEN democracy'
Boris Johnson was hit with a barrage of questions about the wave of allegations facing Tories as he held a press conference at the COP26 summit in Glasgow.
The main problem with this Government is that they appear to believe that you can fool all of the people, all of the time.
And that they continue to do so, ignoring the fact that they keep getting caught doing this.
The main problem for Labour is that, despite having a far more electable leader than Corbyn, and people regularly seeing this Government for the self-serving, greedy gets they undoubtedly are, they still trail in the polls...
LIVE UK POLITICS Labour open up six-point polling lead over Tories amid sleaze row Full story: 40% would vote Labour and 34% Conservative Voters want to reverse Brexit amid shortages and EU spats, polls show Scottish Tory boss refers himself to watchdog over undeclared earnings
The main problem with this Government is that they appear to believe that you can fool all of the people, all of the time.
And that they continue to do so, ignoring the fact that they keep getting caught doing this.
The main problem for Labour is that, despite having a far more electable leader than Corbyn, and people regularly seeing this Government for the self-serving, greedy gets they undoubtedly are, they still trail in the polls...
Minutes of call between Owen Paterson, Randox and minister are missing
The minutes of a call between Owen Paterson, the company for which he is accused of lobbying and a government minister cannot be found by officials, the Government has admitted.
On Wednesday, Labour used a motion in the Commons to press for the details of a call between Randox, Mr Paterson and Lord Bethell, then a health minister, in April last year.
The party said it had concerns over how nearly £600 million of Covid testing contracts were awarded to Randox, in the wake of claims that Mr Paterson broke lobbying rules by working for the company as a consultant.
He has since resigned his seat and left politics after his case triggered a row over sleaze and a major government U-turn.
At Prime Minister's Questions, Boris Johnson said he was "very happy to publish all the details of the Randox contracts, which have been investigated by the National Audit Office already".
Gillian Keegan, a health minister, later echoed the Government's desire to review the information it holds and publish what is deemed "in scope" of Labour's request, but prompted a furious reaction by disclosing the lack of a formal note related to the conference call.
"We have been unable to locate a formal note of the meeting. That is what I have been told so far," she said. "That doesn't mean there isn't one."
It is unclear whether a minute of the meeting was created and later lost, or never existed.
Are you having a giraffe, Hancock? Small family-run furniture firm's profits rocketed 4,700 PER CENT after shamed ex-Health Secretary Matt Hancock personally recommended them for a PPE contract worth £29million
EXCLUSIVE: Nottingham-based Monarch Acoustics Ltd, owned and run by Stuart and Sophie Hopkin (Stuart pictured right and, left, with his family) does not appear to have had PPE manufacturing experience prior to the pandemic but was awarded a £28.8million contract to supply surgical gowns after being referred to the fast-track 'VIP lane' by Matt Hancock (inset) in May 2020. Boris Johnson's government has faced accusations of cronyism after it emerged that some firms were given access to a High Priority Lane which fast-tracked their bids for personal protective equipment (PPE) contracts. This meant their pre-tax profits shot from £267,000 in 2019 to £12.6million in 2020 over the same period.
On track for disaster? PM faces all-out Tory mutiny over rail 'betrayal' with fury he is dooming the North to 100 YEARS of misery by axing flagship 'Levelling Up' plans: Conservatives demand MPs are given a free vote on the issue
Conservatives MPs and local leaders joined a brutal backlash as the PM tried to defend his 'ambitious and unparalleled' overhaul of inter-city links. The premier was accused of giving his crucial Red Wall voters 'scraps off the table' after the HS2 route to Leeds was ditched in favour of a Birmingham to East Midlands Parkway line. The HS3 line linking Manchester and Leeds - known as Northern Powerhouse Rail - is also being shelved. On a visit to a Network Rail hub in Yorkshire, the PM rejected as 'rubbish' claims that the changes break the 'Levelling Up' pledges in Tories' 2019 manifesto. He argued that high speed rail was 'grindingly slow to build' and most of the benefits could be achieved more quickly. However, Transport Select Committee chair Huw Merriman swiped that Mr Johnson kept 'selling perpetual sunlight and then leaving it to others to explain the arrival of moonlight'. Northern mayors and the Tory leader of Bolton Council Martyn Cox have written to Mr Johnson slating him for ignoring experts, and demanding the plans are put to a free vote in the Commons. In a joint letter, they said the policy is 'critical to the future of the North for the next 100 years and more'.
On track for disaster? PM faces all-out Tory mutiny over rail 'betrayal' with fury he is dooming the North to 100 YEARS of misery by axing flagship 'Levelling Up' plans: Conservatives demand MPs are given a free vote on the issue
Conservatives MPs and local leaders joined a brutal backlash as the PM tried to defend his 'ambitious and unparalleled' overhaul of inter-city links. The premier was accused of giving his crucial Red Wall voters 'scraps off the table' after the HS2 route to Leeds was ditched in favour of a Birmingham to East Midlands Parkway line. The HS3 line linking Manchester and Leeds - known as Northern Powerhouse Rail - is also being shelved. On a visit to a Network Rail hub in Yorkshire, the PM rejected as 'rubbish' claims that the changes break the 'Levelling Up' pledges in Tories' 2019 manifesto. He argued that high speed rail was 'grindingly slow to build' and most of the benefits could be achieved more quickly. However, Transport Select Committee chair Huw Merriman swiped that Mr Johnson kept 'selling perpetual sunlight and then leaving it to others to explain the arrival of moonlight'. Northern mayors and the Tory leader of Bolton Council Martyn Cox have written to Mr Johnson slating him for ignoring experts, and demanding the plans are put to a free vote in the Commons. In a joint letter, they said the policy is 'critical to the future of the North for the next 100 years and more'.
The really shocking thing here is that people are surprised they went back on their word, surely they must have learned by now, we have had years of lying tories.
Euro 2020: MPs voted by proxy while at England v Denmark semi-final at Wembley, analysis suggests The government's Chief Whip Mark Spencer, whose role is to oversee party discipline, was among the group of MPs who attended the England v Denmark Euro 2020 semi-final match on 7 July.
Two cabinet ministers were among MPs who cast proxy votes while attending a Euro 2020 football game at Wembley rather than in person in the Commons, according to analysis.
They include Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, Policing Minister Kit Malthouse and the government's Chief Whip Mark Spencer - whose role is to oversee party discipline.
Meanwhile, former international trade secretary Liam Fox voted by proxy on numerous occasions while attending Wimbledon on 5 July, the analysis by POLITICO suggests.
On track for disaster? PM faces all-out Tory mutiny over rail 'betrayal' with fury he is dooming the North to 100 YEARS of misery by axing flagship 'Levelling Up' plans: Conservatives demand MPs are given a free vote on the issue
Conservatives MPs and local leaders joined a brutal backlash as the PM tried to defend his 'ambitious and unparalleled' overhaul of inter-city links. The premier was accused of giving his crucial Red Wall voters 'scraps off the table' after the HS2 route to Leeds was ditched in favour of a Birmingham to East Midlands Parkway line. The HS3 line linking Manchester and Leeds - known as Northern Powerhouse Rail - is also being shelved. On a visit to a Network Rail hub in Yorkshire, the PM rejected as 'rubbish' claims that the changes break the 'Levelling Up' pledges in Tories' 2019 manifesto. He argued that high speed rail was 'grindingly slow to build' and most of the benefits could be achieved more quickly. However, Transport Select Committee chair Huw Merriman swiped that Mr Johnson kept 'selling perpetual sunlight and then leaving it to others to explain the arrival of moonlight'. Northern mayors and the Tory leader of Bolton Council Martyn Cox have written to Mr Johnson slating him for ignoring experts, and demanding the plans are put to a free vote in the Commons. In a joint letter, they said the policy is 'critical to the future of the North for the next 100 years and more'.
The really shocking thing here is that people are surprised they went back on their word, surely they must have learned by now, we have had years of lying tories.
I think it is more surprising that until about a week ago they were still well ahead in the polls. The pandemic has allowed them to take their sleaze to a whole new level. I wonder what the polls will look like this time next year. They have alienated oldies by suspending the pension triple lock. One of many broken manifesto promises. The general public are generally less forgiving when their pockets are hit. Rising inflation affects everyone. Escalating interest rates will affect those with mortgages, and loans. Increases in the cost of living also affect everyone, so the proposed increases to council tax, utility prices, rising food costs, petrol prices, increased NI contributions, etc, etc, will not be welcome. Those claiming universal credit will already have the hump. As will those up north over HS2, and those sacked from their jobs for refusing a covid jab, although I think their position is untenable. The number of migrants arriving will be upsetting many, despite the fact that according to Boris, we have taken back control of our borders. Its hard to imagine who the Tories will appeal to when the next election comes around.
Comments
There's a renewed focus in the papers on Sir Geoffrey Cox's work outside Parliament.
Analysis by the Guardian has found the Conservative MP has earned at least £6m from his second job as a lawyer since entering Parliament in 2005.
The paper says records show he skipped 12 recent votes in the Commons on days when he was doing paid legal work.
The Daily Mail puts the former attorney general's outside earnings at £5.5m for 10,700 hours of work.
Sir Geoffrey did not respond to the Mail's questions about his earnings - but in a statement on his website said he "makes no secret" of his outside work.
The Daily Mirror says Sir Geoffrey "rakes in" around £1,000 a week for a property he lets out in Battersea in south London.
He also submits claims for £1,900 a month to rent a second property in the city. This continued when he was reported to be working in the Caribbean.
Sir Alastair Graham, a former former Standards Committee chairman, said the former attorney general's actions were "totally wrong". But "astonishingly," the paper says, the arrangement is within Commons rules.
The i reports that the chief whip, Mark Spencer, is "in peril" for authorising Sir Geoffrey's trip to the Caribbean.
But, according to one Tory MP, Boris Johnson is unlikely to sack Mr Spencer because it may call into question his own future - as the chief whip is supposed to be the last person standing in government.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-59243146
So is this Caribbean tax haven (Geoffrey Cox's paymaster) a sunny place for shady people? British Virgin Islands' ruling elite have been accused of presiding over a country 'plagued' by political corruption and cronyism, writes TOM LEONARD
Tory MP Sir Geoffrey Cox was becoming frustrated as he defended the British Virgin Islands' government against allegations of corruption, abuse of office and serious dishonesty. It was a Wednesday last month and the full-toned barrister was appearing - remotely from the UK - before a commission in the British Overseas Territory that is backed by the Foreign Office to investigate the claims. The former British attorney general, who usually earns nearly £1,000 an hour for his legal services, couldn't hide his annoyance that his day in court wasn't going entirely his way. Perhaps it is unsurprising that tempers were flaring as there is a huge amount at stake.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10188865/TOM-LEONARD-Caribbean-tax-haven-Geoffrey-Coxs-paymaster-sunny-place-shady-people.html
He looked about as comfortable as a boy in a hand-knitted Guernsey sweater: HENRY DEEDES watches Boris Johnson as the heat over sleaze row increases
HENRY DEEDES: Twice, Boris was given an opportunity to apologise for the steaming mess he'd caused from the Owen Paterson affair. Twice, he declined.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10188625/HENRY-DEEDES-watches-Boris-Johnson-heat-Owen-Paterson-sleaze-row-increases.html
Geoffrey Cox faces more fury as report claims he rents out his London home while claiming £1,900 a month for second property
Sir Geoffrey Cox rents out his London home while claiming £1,900 a month for a second property, it was reported last night.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10189393/Geoffrey-Cox-faces-fury-report-claims-rents-London-home-claiming-1-900.html
How to earn £5.5million: Geoffrey Cox has spent 10,700 hours 'moonlighting' since 2009... the equivalent to FIVE YEARS of working a full-time job
Cox devoted almost 30 hours a week to his legal work in some years, earning an average of more than £500 an hour, according to the Commons Register of Interests.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10188769/Nice-work-Geoffrey-Cox-spent-10-700-hours-moonlighting-2009.html
Speaker hits out at ex-MPs' Commons passes: Lindsay Hoyle orders review into access given to former members after they step down
The Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has demanded an end to the practice of handing parliamentary passes with privileged access rights to ex-MPs who work as lobbyists.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10189073/Speaker-hits-ex-MPs-Commons-passes-Hoyle-orders-review-access-given-former-members.html
Did lockdown loophole let Geoffrey Cox dodge travel ban? Former attorney general is thought to have used flaw in lockdown laws to fly to Caribbean when almost all foreign travel was banned
Sir Geoffrey Cox has so far refused to clarify exactly when he was in the British Virgin Islands to work on his lucrative second job.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10189133/Did-lockdown-loophole-let-Geoffrey-Cox-dodge-travel-ban.html
Sorry, gotta go: Under-fire Boris abruptly ends COP26 press conference after just 22 minutes as he refuses to apologise for Owen Paterson and Tory sleaze debacle and insists MPs' second jobs 'STRENGTHEN democracy'
Boris Johnson was hit with a barrage of questions about the wave of allegations facing Tories as he held a press conference at the COP26 summit in Glasgow.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10187571/Under-fire-Boris-refuses-apologise-Owen-Paterson-sleaze-debacle.html
'They're called 'MPs' pockets' - absolutely massive, and you line them yourself'
LIVE
UK POLITICS
Labour open up six-point polling lead over Tories amid sleaze row
Full story: 40% would vote Labour and 34% Conservative
Voters want to reverse Brexit amid shortages and EU spats, polls show
Scottish Tory boss refers himself to watchdog over undeclared earnings
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-news-tory-labour-poll-b1957038.html
The minutes of a call between Owen Paterson, the company for which he is accused of lobbying and a government minister cannot be found by officials, the Government has admitted.
On Wednesday, Labour used a motion in the Commons to press for the details of a call between Randox, Mr Paterson and Lord Bethell, then a health minister, in April last year.
The party said it had concerns over how nearly £600 million of Covid testing contracts were awarded to Randox, in the wake of claims that Mr Paterson broke lobbying rules by working for the company as a consultant.
He has since resigned his seat and left politics after his case triggered a row over sleaze and a major government U-turn.
At Prime Minister's Questions, Boris Johnson said he was "very happy to publish all the details of the Randox contracts, which have been investigated by the National Audit Office already".
Gillian Keegan, a health minister, later echoed the Government's desire to review the information it holds and publish what is deemed "in scope" of Labour's request, but prompted a furious reaction by disclosing the lack of a formal note related to the conference call.
"We have been unable to locate a formal note of the meeting. That is what I have been told so far," she said. "That doesn't mean there isn't one."
It is unclear whether a minute of the meeting was created and later lost, or never existed.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/minutes-of-call-between-owen-paterson-randox-and-minister-are-missing/ar-AAQP7U5?ocid=msedgntp
EXCLUSIVE: Nottingham-based Monarch Acoustics Ltd, owned and run by Stuart and Sophie Hopkin (Stuart pictured right and, left, with his family) does not appear to have had PPE manufacturing experience prior to the pandemic but was awarded a £28.8million contract to supply surgical gowns after being referred to the fast-track 'VIP lane' by Matt Hancock (inset) in May 2020. Boris Johnson's government has faced accusations of cronyism after it emerged that some firms were given access to a High Priority Lane which fast-tracked their bids for personal protective equipment (PPE) contracts. This meant their pre-tax profits shot from £267,000 in 2019 to £12.6million in 2020 over the same period.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10212401/Furniture-firms-profits-soared-4-700-CENT-Hancock-recommended-29m-PPE-contract.html
Conservatives MPs and local leaders joined a brutal backlash as the PM tried to defend his 'ambitious and unparalleled' overhaul of inter-city links. The premier was accused of giving his crucial Red Wall voters 'scraps off the table' after the HS2 route to Leeds was ditched in favour of a Birmingham to East Midlands Parkway line. The HS3 line linking Manchester and Leeds - known as Northern Powerhouse Rail - is also being shelved. On a visit to a Network Rail hub in Yorkshire, the PM rejected as 'rubbish' claims that the changes break the 'Levelling Up' pledges in Tories' 2019 manifesto. He argued that high speed rail was 'grindingly slow to build' and most of the benefits could be achieved more quickly. However, Transport Select Committee chair Huw Merriman swiped that Mr Johnson kept 'selling perpetual sunlight and then leaving it to others to explain the arrival of moonlight'. Northern mayors and the Tory leader of Bolton Council Martyn Cox have written to Mr Johnson slating him for ignoring experts, and demanding the plans are put to a free vote in the Commons. In a joint letter, they said the policy is 'critical to the future of the North for the next 100 years and more'.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10216069/Boris-accused-breaking-Levelling-pledge-rail-plan-unveiled.html
The government's Chief Whip Mark Spencer, whose role is to oversee party discipline, was among the group of MPs who attended the England v Denmark Euro 2020 semi-final match on 7 July.
Two cabinet ministers were among MPs who cast proxy votes while attending a Euro 2020 football game at Wembley rather than in person in the Commons, according to analysis.
They include Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, Policing Minister Kit Malthouse and the government's Chief Whip Mark Spencer - whose role is to oversee party discipline.
Meanwhile, former international trade secretary Liam Fox voted by proxy on numerous occasions while attending Wimbledon on 5 July, the analysis by POLITICO suggests.
https://news.sky.com/story/euro-2020-mps-voted-by-proxy-while-at-england-v-denmark-semi-final-at-wembley-analysis-suggests-12470619
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/newslondon/sleazopedia-the-anatomy-of-the-tories-week-from-****/ar-AAQAduM?ocid=msedgntp
The pandemic has allowed them to take their sleaze to a whole new level.
I wonder what the polls will look like this time next year.
They have alienated oldies by suspending the pension triple lock.
One of many broken manifesto promises.
The general public are generally less forgiving when their pockets are hit.
Rising inflation affects everyone.
Escalating interest rates will affect those with mortgages, and loans.
Increases in the cost of living also affect everyone, so the proposed increases to council tax, utility prices, rising food costs, petrol prices, increased NI contributions, etc, etc, will not be welcome.
Those claiming universal credit will already have the hump.
As will those up north over HS2, and those sacked from their jobs for refusing a covid jab, although I think their position is untenable.
The number of migrants arriving will be upsetting many, despite the fact that according to Boris, we have taken back control of our borders.
Its hard to imagine who the Tories will appeal to when the next election comes around.