A senior Tory denies wrongdoing

• His office received a £20,000 payment earlier.
• It was from a Covid=19 testing company.
• Former Tory minister Dr. Liam Fox vehemently denied any wrongdoing.

After it was discovered that his office received a £20,000 payment earlier this year from a Covid-19 testing company he suggested to the government during the pandemic, former Tory minister Dr. Liam Fox vehemently denied any wrongdoing.

According to an email obtained by the BBC and the legal advocacy group the Good Law Project, Dr. Fox actually suggested SureScreen Diagnostics, a Covid testing company, to Matt Hancock, who was the health secretary at the time, back in 2020.

A director of the Derbyshire-based company initially addressed Mr. Fox in June 2020 to let him know that the business was delivering millions of antibody tests for use in hospitals in Germany, Spain, and Sweden, according to emails obtained by the Good Law Project through a Freedom of Information request.

They referred to it as “crazy” that the tests could not be utilized in the UK because Public Health England had not given their approval.

I don’t think the British public would comprehend or agree of the widespread export of this capability when we would have a tremendous need at home, Fox later shared the director’s communications to Mr. Hancock, who was then the health secretary.

Even though it is unclear what, if any, impact Dr. Fox’s involvement had on the outcome, SureScreen Diagnostics was given a £500 million testing contract by the Department of Health and Social Care after just seven months had passed.

The business later announced record earnings of £67.2 million for the year ending in May 2021, an amount that was 75 times more than the previous year’s profits.

The MPs’ register of interests lists the £20,000 donation to Dr. Fox, a former defense secretary, as having been made in June 2022.

Surescreen asserted that the fee was contributed to Dr. Fox’s office rather than to the MP directly and denied ever receiving payment to influence government ministers.

The Good Law Project said that the contribution created concerns since the government has previously been sued for using emergency powers to close businesses off to competition.

“How many times do corporates need to contribute money to Tory MPs after having help securing big public contracts before deciding we have a cash for contracts problem,” questioned the organization’s executive director Jolyon Maugham.

We are completely aware of what behavior like this would be considered if we witnessed it in another nation.

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