UK: Labour wins vote demanding government release COVID-19 contracts

The British opposition Labour Party secured a vote to demand the government to release documents of COVID-19 contracts given to a firm with a connection to a Conservative member of the Upper House. The vote was secured after the lawmakers of the governing Conservative Party abstained from the opposition’s motion.

The Labour Party won a vote that would allow them to demand that the government release documents of the COVID-19 contracts to a firm. The firm in question has ties to a Conservative member of the Upper House, with Labour winning the vote after Conservative lawmakers were told they could abstain from the motion. The contracts involve $244 million of personal protective equipment to firm PPE MedPro.

It remains to be seen whether the government would turn in the documents and Conservative lawmakers said there was no deadline in the motion to be able to force the government to release the documents as soon as possible.

“Ministers must now confirm when, where, and how this information will be released. This cannot be yet another Tory whitewash,” said deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner, referring to the Conservative Party.

This comes as opposition lawmakers have accused the government of running a “chumocracy” by giving deals to those with family or business links to people in authority, including what would end up being unusable PPE in some cases. Local media reported that Conservative lawmaker Michelle Mone in the House of Lords brought attention to MedPro in a ministerial meeting at the start of the pandemic.

Mone has since faced accusations of profiting from the business, which her lawyers have denied. On Tuesday, Mone was reportedly going on a leave of absence from the Upper House.

The governing party is widely predicted to lose power in the next general elections, with the Labour Party set to take over. The prediction appears to grow more evident as 14 Conservative lawmakers have announced that they will not return to parliament, with the Conservative Party fearing that the departure of younger lawmakers is a sign of its collapse in public support polls among young voters.

Two senior Conservatives said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak would have to come up with a good policy to attract young voters by next year or risk losing even more lawmakers in the party.