A Cabinet Office minister in charge of procurement is at the centre of a conflict of interest row after it emerged that he has shares in a firm that helps companies to bid for government contracts worth millions.
Lord Agnew of Oulton, also a significant Conservative donor, is among shareholders of Public Group, which makes its money by helping start-ups to win contracts with government departments. Labour accused Agnew of a potential conflict of interest and called for an “urgent ramping up of transparency at the heart of government” to tackle alleged cronyism.
Public Group was established by Daniel Korski, a special adviser to David Cameron between 2013 and 2016, and Alexander de Carvalho in 2017. Its backers include Agnew, who holds shares via Ovington Investments, which is controlled as a blind trust while he is in office. Public Group’s shareholders also include Lord Marland, who served as Cameron’s trade envoy, and David Meller, a Tory donor and former member of the Department for Education’s board of directors. There is no suggestion of impropriety by Public’s investors.
As minister of state for efficiency and transformation, Agnew’s responsibilities include procurement and “public value and planning and performance”.
Public Group has been described as a way to help start-ups “sell into” and “transform” public services. It has said that in its first three years it helped 36 small companies win £11 million of public-sector contracts.
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It also says that it advises government departments on how to “transform their services using the most innovative technologies”. Its website includes an endorsement from Matt Hancock, the health secretary.
The company has enjoyed access to the Cabinet Office, which co-ordinates state procurement policies. Official records show a meeting in 2018 between Korski and Oliver Dowden, who is now the culture secretary but at the time was parliamentary secretary to the Cabinet Office. Korski and de Carvalho also met Michael Gove, minister for the Cabinet Office, a year ago to discuss government reform.
Korski also has links to the banker Lex Greensill, who has been caught up in a row over access he had to the heart of government when Cameron was prime minister. Public Group helped to develop FreeUp, a company that later won deals with NHS trusts. In 2019 Public profited from the $5.1 million sale of FreeUp to Greensill Capital, the firm set up by Lex Greensill. FreeUp, which was renamed Earnd (UK), went bust last week and its assets are being wound down by administrators.
Greensill Capital’s links to government, politicians and senior civil servants have come under scrutiny after its own collapse into administration last month. Cameron, who resigned as prime minister in 2016 and served as a Greensill adviser from 2018, lobbied the Bank of England and Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, to give the company access to emergency coronavirus loans.
Rachel Reeves, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, said: “The layers of cronyism and potential conflicts of interest here get more shocking the deeper you go. This is why we need an investigation into the extent of Greensill’s access to government, reassurance around what look to be potentially huge conflicts of interest, and an urgent ramping up of transparency at the heart of government to stamp out this rampant Conservative cronyism.”
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A spokeswoman for Public declined to answer a series of questions about the Greensill deal or discuss how it managed potential conflicts of interest. She said: “Public has stakes in a portfolio of leading technology companies across Europe. One of these companies, which Public seed funded, was sold to Greensill in 2019.”
A spokesman for the Cabinet Office said: “Lord Agnew has had no involvement in the activity of Public, its involvement with FreeUp, nor Greensill’s acquisition of FreeUp in 2019.
“The ministerial code sets out the process by which ministers should declare and manage potential conflicts of interest, working with their permanent secretary and the independent adviser on ministers’ interests. The minister complied with these obligations.”