David Cameron denies lobbying for genetics firm to get £123m contract
David Cameron has denied lobbying Matt Hancock on behalf of a genetics firm that won a £123m government contract.
Cameron works as a paid adviser for US-based gene sequencing firm Illumina, who won the contract after the former Prime Minister wrote to Matt Hancock about attending a conference with him.
The Times reports that Cameron lobbied then health secretary in 2019 to speak at a conference with him and Illumina’s chief executive.
In a letter to Hancock, Cameron wrote: “I understand [then Illumina chief executive] Jay [Flatley] has sent this direct to your office, but I wanted to i) ensure that you had seen it personally; and ii) strongly endorse their invitation to this significant conference.”
Hancock agreed to attend the conference after receiving Cameron’s letter, just weeks after he did not reply to one from Illumina’s chief.
Illumina was then awarded the £123m contract without any competition a week after Hancock attended the conference with Flatley and Cameron.
The contract is with Genomics England, which is owned by the Department of Health and Social Care.
A spokesperson for the former PM said “Cameron’s work for Illumina has never involved any discussion of commercial contracts”.
“It has predominantly involved promoting the benefits of genomic sequencing and the world-leading example of Genomics England to other countries around the world. He has done this in Australia, the US, the Gulf, India and more recently in online calls with interested parties in Japan and Holland,” they said.
The Department of Health said there was no competition because “Illumina Cambridge Ltd remained the only company that had sufficient capacity, quality, support and infrastructure to support sequencing”.
NHS sources told The Times that existing poor quality IT systems meant work done through Illumina’s contract could not be fully utilised.
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said the affair was an example of “rampant cronyism, sleaze and dodgy lobbying”.
“They hand public money to their mates without a second thought,” she said.
“With NHS staff suggesting that it hasn’t been possible to make full use of the capacity the contract provided, the Government must answer questions about why it awarded such a huge sum of money without competition in the first place.”
A government spokesperson said: “This contract, signed to help save lives through better diagnosis, was awarded in the correct way, through the proper process.
“Any suggestion of undue ministerial involvement in the decision making is completely wrong.”