An MP has angrily hit back at claims "government cronyism" was at the heart of awarding contracts during the pandemic.

It comes after a Kent Conservative councillor and party donor helped a firm win a £100 million deal to supply PPE.

Adam Holloway, speaking in a Commons debate on Monday, said the accusations were "utterly preposterous" after a Gravesham businessman with links to the Tories was found to have been involved with a private company which secured the deal.

He also said he has "no objection to an inquiry" to investigate how the government awarded contracts to establish if anything untoward or illegal had taken place.

Samir Jassal, who is a borough councillor for Westcourt ward on Gravesham council, was listed as the "supplier contact" for Pharmaceuticals Direct Ltd (PDL) to provide vital equipment for the NHS and care homes.

He was also twice a parliamentary candidate for the Conservatives, served as an adviser to David Cameron and donated more than £4,000 to the Gravesham Conservative Association.

Campaign groups have also questioned whether his links to Home Secretary Priti Patel and Mr Cameron helped PDL – for whom Cllr Jassal was a consultant – win the contract worth £103m.

PDL says it specialises in "procuring a full range of competitively priced branded and generic pharmaceutical and healthcare products".

The company, based in Chessington in Surrey, says it has three MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) approved warehouse and storage facilities and is also an "approved wholesale distributor" by the regulator.

MPs were debating the issue after a petition was lobbied in parliament about the way contracts had been procured during the pandemic.

Tonia Antoniazzi, the Labour MP for Gower, said £31.2 billion had been spent in response to the pandemic with "dodgy, questionable deals" not put out to tender and said the public deserved to know if they had been "value for money".

She said: "They need to know whether we can recoup some of the money we have spent on useless PPE. These are serious matters that just cannot be brushed aside."

On the PDL contract, Ms Antoniazzi added: "To be fair, at least the company in this case, Pharmaceuticals Direct, seems to have a history in providing medical equipment, given its appropriate name.

"However, the contract was again awarded without tender.

"What is more, even after the Prime Minister insisted in the main Chamber that all Covid contracts were on the record, no details of that one were revealed until after the Good Law Project wrote to the Government about it. They were nine months late in providing those details."

Government officials were granted emergency powers at the start of the pandemic to secure urgent deals from sources approved by Whitehall employees and politicians.

But Mr Holloway, the Conservative MP for Gravesham, said claims about Cllr Jassal amounted to an "absurd narrative" that his company won the contract "because of links to the Conservative party".

Speaking in Westminster Hall, Mr Holloway said: "I know him quite well, and it is utterly preposterous to say that because he stood twice in unwinnable parliamentary seats, because he twice managed to get himself a photograph with David Cameron, because he twice managed to get himself a picture with Boris, because he once gave four thousand quid to the Gravesham Conservative Association, and because he is the councillor for Painters Ash, that somehow buys him calls from the Health Secretary, whose honour is also impugned in this.

"The idea that the Health Secretary rang him up because he had given four thousand quid and had a few photographs taken, with an, “Oi, mate – want to make a few hundred grand next week on PPE?” is utterly preposterous.

"I think he had spent over a month being triaged to see whether it was suitable stuff. This is really preposterous."

"If we had just relied on the state sector or our existing suppliers, that equipment would have been shipped elsewhere in the world.

"I remember running into him and him telling me that he had offered some PPE, when we were screaming for it. I think he had spent over a month being triaged to see whether it was suitable stuff. This is really preposterous."

He said entrepreneurs such as Cllr Jassal and civil servants who had worked to secure PPE for health staff "are actually heroes" adding that critics "should have the humility to accept that".

In response, Deidre Brock of the SNP replied: "I gently say to him [Mr Holloway] that national emergency does not disqualify the Government from proper examination of what look to the public like questionable decisions over very large amounts of public money."

Catherine West, Labour MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, said: "The emergency procurement powers should be wound down immediately, and money should be clawed back on contracts that have not delivered.

"If there is money to be clawed back, given that there appears to be largesse in Government, who are spraying money around on some of those contracts, instead of hiding the available money, why not make it available for staff who do not get sick pay and therefore cannot self-isolate, thereby spreading the virus? That would be a very good use of that money."

Cabinet Office minister Julia Lopez said there "was concern" about the required amount of PPE and the government put out a call to action to the public and businesses with 15,000 responses and 90% were rejected.

She added: "But that also meant that, in very short order, commercial teams were dealing with more than 15,000 offers of help. Frankly, leads were coming in much faster than they could be processed.

"The most important thing to note is that all PPE offers, no matter from where they came, went through the same eight-stage checks. The PPE team compared prices to those obtained in the previous two weeks, to benchmark the competitiveness of those offers."

She added Mr Holloway had "highlighted the absurdity of some of the claims of impropriety being made".

The Good Law Project, which uncovered the link between the PDL contract and Cllr Jassal, is aiming to take the government to court over the contract.

Gemma Abbot, the group's legal director, told the BBC in April: "It's of profound public importance that we discover who has benefited from the special arrangements put in place, who has benefited from the billions of public money spent, and at whose direction."

Cllr Jassal has been contacted for comment.

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