https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/firms-donated-labour-handed-ps138m-contracts

EIGHT firms that recently donated to the Labour Party were awarded contracts worth close to £138 million within the first year of Sir Keir Starmer’s government, researchers revealed today.

Their report, for the Autonomy Institute think tank, found that the firms’ donations, totalling £580,000, were tiny compared with the multimillion-pound public contracts they received.

Among them were accounting firm PwC UK, which had donated £236,000 since 2022 and been awarded £67m in contracts, and business consultancy Baringa Partners, which had given £30,000 since last year and signed deals worth £35m.

The trend carries on from the previous Tory government. Looking at May 2015 until last July, the report identified 29 companies which had donated £11m to the Conservative Party and then received contracts worth £2.3 billion.

These included Covid testing firm Randox Laboratories, which took £132.4m in contracts after donating £44,000, and consultancy KPMG, which secured £236m in deals after donating £170,000.

The report found that since 2000, for every £1 donated by a “giver and taker” company, they were awarded £1,294 in public contracts.

It describes the relationship between donations and government contracts as a “cause of concern for democratic governance, raising questions for transparency, accountability, and public trust” and calls for a ban on public contracts for firms that have made donations over the last decade.

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Original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/firms-donated-labour-handed-ps138m-contracts