Labour has become embroiled in its own “cronyism” row as it emerged that Sadiq Khan has handed out £500 million in contracts without going through the usual tender process.
The contracts, which were not put out to competitive bidding, include five agreements awarded to a firm whose chairman is the uncle of a Labour frontbencher, who at the time worked for the London Mayor.
The revelations have led senior Tories to accuse Labour (which has repeatedly attacked the Government for awarding contracts to firms during the coronavirus without openly advertising them) of hypocrisy.
Echoing their concerns, Shaun Bailey, the Tory London mayoral candidate, said: “Londoners expect the Mayor to look out for their interests, particularly when it comes to public contracts.
"But Sadiq Khan has shown he can’t be trusted with taxpayers’ money.”
According to a written response issued by Mr Khan on City’s Hall’s website, Transport for London, which he is chairman of, has awarded approximately half a billion pounds through 946 contracts which did not go through the usual open tendering process.
The contracts span the first four years of Mr Khan’s tenure in City Hall.
Public bodies are supposed to advertise contracts for privately provided services to ensure fair competition and value for money, with the normal process only dis-applied in specific and exceptional circumstances.
However, in his response, Mr Khan said that in “limited cases” it was necessary to award contracts directly, adding that TfL had “rigorous approval processes in place to test the validity and necessity of any directly awarded contract".
Meanwhile, The Telegraph has found five contracts worth £210,000 were awarded by the Greater London Authority (GLA), which Mr Khan also presides over, to New London Architecture (NLA), a discussion forum to improve London’s architecture, planning and development.
The firm’s chairman, Peter Murray, is the uncle of James Murray, the former deputy mayor for housing at City Hall who advised Mr Khan during his election campaigns.
He stepped down from the role last year after being elected as the Labour MP for Ealing North. He was later promoted to shadow financial secretary to the Treasury.
The contracts awarded to NLA include £95,0000 for NLA to become the official partner for Mr Khan’s “Homes for Londoners Conference” in January last year, as well as £55,000 to produce crystal exhibition event stands six months later.
Three separate contracts were also awarded by the Greater London Authority as part of an annual sponsorship between 2016 and 2018, worth £66,000.
According to publicly available information, the funds for at least four of the contracts were paid either partially or entirely from GLA’s housing and land budgets and all were awarded while Mr Murray worked at City Hall.
Greg Hands, a trade minister and MP for Fulham and Chelsea, said: “I think this needs urgent investigation. It is hypocritical of Labour to accuse others of cronyism when this case has come to light.”
Source : The Telegraph
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