The UK Government has been taken to court by the Good Law Project, a not-for-profit, crowd-funded charity, in order to get anywhere close to holding BoJo and his clowns to account for wasting taxpayers´ money - and they won! Those taxpayers voted BoJo in for another term of office and many...
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... appear happy to forgive this Government anything, because of the success of the vaccination programme, while giving little or no thought to the frontline health workers who struggled without appropriate and sufficient PPE because of the Government´s cronyism. How can we expect Government Select Committees to rigorously investigate this unlawful behaviour, while they continue to waste more public money defending further law suits?
I´ve been supporting the Good Law Project for some time - emails that I received from them on Wednesday and yesterday give you some idea of what is having to be done in the charitable sector because the Government´s own procedures are not rigorous. I hope you find their work of interest.
Kind regards,
Kim
Good Law Project
Dear Kim,
Michael Gove broke the law by giving a contract to a communications agency run by long time associates of him and Dominic Cummings, the High Court has decided.
The Court found that the decision to award the £560,000 contract to Public First was tainted by “apparent bias” and was unlawful. The Court found that Gove’s:
“failure to consider any other research agency… would lead a fair minded and informed observer to conclude that there was a real possibility, or a real danger, that the decision maker was biased” (paragraph 168).
Michael Gove had claimed that the work was such that only Public First could carry it out. However, the High Court rejected that version of events. The simple truth, it held, was that the Cabinet Office didn’t even consider whether anyone else should have the contract.
The decision vindicates Good Law Project’s long-running characterisation of pandemic procurement as “institutionalised cronyism”.
Emails released in the case also showed that both Michael Gove and Number 10 were keen that Public First (and Hanbury) should win no-tender polling contracts. Good Law Project’s judicial review of the decision to award a contract to Hanbury will be heard on 26 July.
The decision is the second in our long slate of crowdfunded procurement judicial reviews – and we have succeeded in both. Two Cabinet Ministers – Michael Gove and Matt Hancock – have now been found to have broken the law.
Following the first decision, Good Law Project wrote to Matt Hancock making proposals to improve procurement and get better value for money for taxpayers. We offered, if that invitation was accepted, to drop our further procurement challenges to save public money. Mr Hancock did not respond. Since that letter, huge further sums in public money have been wasted in fruitless defence of their unlawful conduct.
Good Law Project repeats its invitation to the Government to learn lessons – and to stop wasting more public money staving off political embarrassment.
Good Law Project is grateful to its legal team of Jason Coppel QC and Patrick Halliday of 11KBW Chambers, instructed by Rook Irwin Sweeney. And of course to the tens of thousands of people whose financial contributions make litigation like this possible.
We are the arrow but you draw the bow.
Thank you,
Jo Maugham
Director of Good Law Project
9 June 2021
Good Law Project
Dear Kim,
Yesterday’s High Court judgment that Michael Gove broke the law by handing a contract to his associates is vindication of what we have been saying for months: there is institutionalised cronyism at the heart of Government.
Lots of you have quite rightly got in touch to ask: what are the consequences? What happens now?
There will be real world impact. We know from people who work in Government that Good Law Project’s legal cases have caused those in power to think twice before they break the rules again. It shouldn’t take a tiny not-for-profit, crowdfunded by tens of thousands of people, to act as a watchdog against Government cronyism and law-breaking. But those in power have learned we’re watching and that we’re not afraid to act.
In terms of criminality, that was not alleged in this case. But we know that in the case of PPE procurement, Government’s own Counter Fraud Function has assessed a high risk of fraud. We have uncovered a case that we believe the Serious Fraud Office should investigate and we will make a referral to them. As always, we will keep you updated.
For the Ministers involved, breaking the law should be a resigning matter or a sackable offence. But we know that Michael Gove or Matt Hancock won’t go and the two High Court rulings won’t force them to. That’s a huge problem for all of us who believe in standards in public life and the rule of law.
So whilst the law is an important check on Government’s misuse of power, it can’t be the only one. In order to truly turn the tide on this culture of impunity, we need to be more ambitious. We need to reach more of the public with our work, we need to be on the front page of every paper, we need to be speaking with our friends and families about what is happening at the heart of Government. Ultimately, it’s about building more power.
It’s no easy task. But we’ve already shown what thousands of people can do when we’re all pulling together in the right direction. On that note, I wanted to share a personal thank you. This High Court victory is only possible thanks to you.
Thank you,
Jo Maugham
Director of Good Law Project
10 June 2021
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