Peter Devine

ALT Raab recommended a Cambridgeshire toy maker who had only a single employee at the start of the pandemic. Jenrick, now Reform UK treasury spokesman, is listed as ‘possibly’ referring an export packing firm. Graham Brady, then chair of the 1922 committee of backbench Tory MPs, referred an interior design company near his Altrincham and Sale West seat. Brady told Democracy for Sale that he had “no recollection of this but given the location, I assume I was passing on an approach from a constituent. I have no involvement with the company and never have had.” Owen Paterson, who later left parliament after a lobbying scandal, referred a Birmingham biotech firm working on pregnancy complications. None of these firms were given contracts. Then health secretary Matt Hancock is named against 27 companies, three of them marked ‘possible’. Former Conservative party chairman Lord Feldman is recorded against 21 (three ‘possible’) and Cabinet Office minister Lord Agnew against 14 (four ‘possible’).