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The COVID Inquiry just completed four weeks of hearings centred on the controversial procurement decisions made by Boris Johnson's Government during the pandemic.

Of particular interest was the use of a VIP lane by the Cabinet Office and Department for Health and Social Care to procure PPE - a system that fast tracked offers from politically connected companies, many of whom had never previously supplied PPE to the NHS.

The previous Conservative Government was forced by the Good Law Project to reveal the names of the suppliers who benefited from the VIP Lane, and in November 2021, finally published the list of 51 names following a long-running battle.

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However, those 51 suppliers declared by the DHSC may just be the tip of the iceberg.

In February 2022, Good Law Project was leaked internal DHSC documents that suggested a further 18 companies benefited from the VIP Lane, but this was dismissed by the DHSC which claimed: "It is inaccurate to claim that all of these companies were referred to by the High Priority Lane route."

But, new evidence published by the COVID Inquiry and analysed by the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition (UKACC) now supports the initial claims made by GLP and in fact goes one step further to reveal the names of at least "20 other suppliers who received 48 contracts worth £1 billion" Via the VIP route.

Half a decade on we still don't know the scale of the VIP lane operation

Gavid Hayman, executive director of open contracting partnerships and co-chair of the UKACC told the inquiry that "we are still not sure we have got to the bottom of all those VIP contracts".

He added: "It appears that the evidence to the Inquiry on VIP Lane suppliers from DHSC conflicts with that of the Cabinet Office.

"The Cabinet Office evidence appears to omit 20 other suppliers who received 48 contracts worth £1 billion according to the DHSC evidence. I am not sure who is right but it is bad that we still don't know for sure five years on. Hopefully, My Lady, you will get to the bottom of it."

The contradicting evidence provided by the Cabinet Office and referred to by the UKACC is in the form of a detailed spreadsheet now made public by the inquiry for the first time.

Remarkably, every PPE supplier awarded a contract by the Government during the pandemic can then be filtered into "VIP" or non-VIP categories, revealing the names of potentially 20 new VIP suppliers.

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These 20 suppliers went on to secure PPE contracts valued at £1 billion according to a detailed review conducted by UKACC.

But the confusion doesn't end there…

To date, the names of 51 VIP lane suppliers have been made public by the DHSC. However, earlier in the month, the Government's former Chief Commercial Officer Gareth Rhys Williams confirmed to the inquiry that yet another company had mistakenly been missed off the list.

That company was Luxe Lifestyle, a previous investigation by the Good Law Project revealed that Luxe were awarded a £20 million PPE deal following an intervention by former Conservative Party Ministers and Chairman Greg Hands.

Rhys Will...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

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The UK Government has been criticised by leading NGOs and Sudanese Civil Society organisations for failing to include any Sudanese organisations in the much-vaunted Sudan summit in London this Tuesday.

The conference was organised by Foreign Secretary David Lammy and co-hosted with France, Germany, the EU and African Union for the second anniversary of the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) a paramilitary organisation that has attacked the non-Arabic ethnic groups in Darfur.

The conference followed a weekend of brutal massacres of civilians by the RSF in refugee camps around Darfur with 300 killed according to the UN, and the mass displacement of up to 400,000 civilians from the Zamzam refugee camp and the city of El-Fasher.

Both warring parties were excluded from the conference as were members of Sudanese civil society.

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At an event previewing the conference, aid and human rights NGOs operating in Sudan criticised the exclusion of Sudanese civilian advocates.

Dr Eva Khair, director of Sudan Transnational Consortium told members of the press "to see more agency going to backers of the conflict than to any single Sudanese voice, that's really concerning".

The groups emphasised that the focus had to be on civilian protection and encouraged the Government to take "low hanging fruit" such as restoring telecommunications to areas of Sudan that are under blackout.

The communications blackout makes it very difficult for aid workers to operate and severely limits the ability of civilians to access money.

The NGO PAEMA (Preventing and ending mass atrocities) said one goal of the conference should be to "restore telecoms access across all of Sudan to enable the timely and accurate documentation of serious violations of human rights".

PAEMA and another NGO Avaaz took out an ad in the Financial Times this morning urging David Lammy to take steps to break the blackout.

Yasmine Ahmed, Human Rights Watch UK Director said "this has been, and continues to be, a war on civilians. Civilians are not just collateral damage, this is targeted violence against civilians […] For two years millions of civilians have desperately called on the international community to take concrete measures to protect them, and to date the international community has utterly failed them. The consequences of this failure is playing out today in El-Fasher and the two displacement camps around El-Fasher".

At the opening of the conference David Lammy and his French and German counterparts Jean-Noël Barrot and Analena Baerbock announced aid packages of £120 million and €125 million respectively.

The United Arab Emirates, a key military and financial ally of the RSF attended the talks.

The UAE has been accused of secretly funnelling guns to the RSF via Chad, a charge which it had strongly denied, however a leaked UN report seen by the Guardian revealed several flights from the UAE in which transport planes made apparently deliberate attempts to avoid detection as they flew into bases in Chad.

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Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

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"In a quiet suburb, a loving couple runs an art agency, raises kids, and kills for the FSB," says a Ukrainian officer, in a balaclava, as he talks at a secret location near the frontline, with drones whizzing above and artillery shells whistling by.

He pulls up a quote on his phone: "The Russian world is everywhere there is Russian influence, in one form or another: cultural, informational, military, economic, ideological or humanitarian… The extent of our influence varies greatly from region to region, but it is never zero. So we will spread out in all directions, as far as God wills and as strong as we are."

"The former aide to Putin, Vladislav Surkov, said this, and he's not joking," says another officer. "We are here to give an urgent warning to the free world."

Byline Times presents an exclusive interview with Ukrainian "Elves" unit officers, revealing how Russia infiltrates democratic societies and why - and how - the West must fight back. "Elves" is a nod to Tolkien's warriors in an existential war of light against darkness, where the stakes are nothing less than the fate of the free world.

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How it Worked

Infiltration is a long-standing tactic: like all spies in human history, Kremlin operatives create a cover identity to embed agents within foreign countries or high-value targets. The Elves have been countering Kremlin infiltration campaigns for decades.

Russian agents infiltrated Ukraine - and the Kherson region - in two stages.

In 2001, a wave of immigrants from Russia entered Ukraine, claiming to be fleeing criminal threats. Wealthy businessmen set up companies, bought properties, flaunted expensive lifestyles, and then switched to politics. This was a classic infiltration strategy - gaining economic and political influence under false pretences.

More agents were cultivated locally. The key collaborator in the Kherson region, Volodymyr Saldo, exemplifies a long-term "sleeper agent" placed by Russian intelligence. He rose through Kherson's construction sector during the USSR era, switched to politics in 2001, served as mayor of Kherson three times in 2002 - 2012, and later as a member of parliament with the pro-Russian Party of Regions. When the Russians captured Kherson in 2022, they appointed Saldo the head of the Kherson administration and "Governor" installed by Russian occupational forces.

The now-deceased deputy to Volodymyr Saldo, Kirill Stremousov, a public figure and provocateur turned journalist-collaborator, presents an example of the second wave of agent recruitment, which came in 2010 - 2012, ahead of Crimea's annexation. Russia's oil wealth funded large-scale influence operations. The Kremlin agents gathered intelligence and identified key figures to recruit and bribe. After the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea, when the Ukrainian Government established Anti-Terrorist Centres (ATC) to fight the Kremlin invasion, Russian intelligence managed to recruit several heads of ATCs and the Ukrainian secret services (SBU). Stermousov was then under the protection of one such double agent, Ihor Sadohin, head of an ATC and a senior SBU officer. After the 2022 full-scale invasion, Stremousov openly worked for the occupying forces until his suspicious death on 9 November 2022. Sadohin was arrested in Ukraine on suspicion of treason in 2022.

Good "legending" allows Russian agents to gather intelligence and establish networks without scrutiny. The Elves are stil...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

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Help us build the better media Britain deserves

A small group of "super investors" composed of asset managers and powerful investment firms - is quietly fuelling the global oil industry's retreat from climate targets, according to a new report by the Centre for Climate Crime and Climate Justice at Queen Mary University of London, shared exclusively with Byline Times.

The report, Toxic Investors: The Dirty Dozen's insatiable drive for oil and gas profits, reveals that BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street, the so-called "Big Three" asset managers, have dramatically increased their shareholdings in the world's 12 largest publicly listed oil and gas companies, dubbed the "Dirty Dozen" by the report.

Collectively, these three investment firms now own more than 18% of the total shares of these companies, a 30% increase on their holdings at the time of the Paris Agreement of 2015.

Ownership of fossil fuel companies is increasingly concentrated in the hands of just 25 companies, according to the report.

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Over the past three years major US oil companies Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Conoco Phillips have increased their oil production.

In 2024 BP scrapped its target for a reduction in oil production and Shell downgraded its climate targets, halving its plans for reducing oil output from 2% to 1% a year.

"The world's biggest oil and gas companies have been retreating from their climate commitments and are planning to increase fossil fuel production," said co-author of the report Bill Spence, Professor of Theoretical Physics at Queen Mary university of London. (QMUL)

"They're doing this in the service of their largest shareholders - firms that most people have never heard of, but which wield enormous power behind the scenes."

The report uses original analysis of Capital IQ shareholder data to track how ownership has shifted since 2015. It shows that the number of investors required to form a controlling stake, i.e. more than 50% in these companies has dropped from 37 to just 30 on average.

Citing lawsuits by Republican states against BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street, over claims that they promote "a destructive, politicised environmental agenda", the report argues that the repeal of climate targets by big oil companies and the increased investment by these firms should be "seen in the context of an international, largescale pushback against attempts to limit fossil fuel exploitation and profits".

Professor of Climate Justice at QMUL, David Whyte, one of the report's co-authors, said "political leaders are currently showing unprecedented support for Big Oil, and appear to be weakening the transition to a low carbon economy. This evidence shows that the financial elite has at the same time hugely extended its capacity to profit from oil in the decade since the Paris Agreement. If we really want to 'drain the swamp', we need to start with the big asset managers who are able to keep getting richer and richer by increasing fossil fuel production".

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He added that "this story also tells us that international law is failing the planet. As political leaders line up to condemn 'woke' policies, it is clear that our climate policies ha...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

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Help us build the better media Britain deserves

Polina Zabrodskaya is a woman used to toxicity. She grew up against a backdrop of industrial decay in the city of Tula, Russia - an infamous environmental disaster zone south of Moscow. Black deluges, sludge rivers and chemical slimes were her childhood realities - visible scars left by factories that, at least on paper, adhered to the strictest of environmental regulations.

"Two hundred factories, if memory serves," she told Byline Times in her North London home. "Usually, all that environmental damage is hidden elsewhere. In my case, it was obvious. Dead rivers, poisoned soil beyond recovery, black snow. Diseases through the roof."

It was a poisoned childhood that profoundly influenced her - a raw awareness of the environmental impact of industrialism, and the human costs found between the immediacy of manufacturing pollution and the distance of corporate lies.

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"This disconnect between promises and environmental damage was so obvious very early on," she says today from her quiet living room, noteworthy for its order and minimalism.

The environmental devastation was to become deeply personal. "My mum and grandma passed away from cancer. Not surprising. It's very hard to prove (a link). Even if contamination and pollution are proven, there is still plausible deniability."

Zabrodskaya left that poisoned town and eventually settled in the UK, building a successful career in advertising. She became a Creative Partner at Abbott Mead Vickers (AMV) BBDO, drawn initially by the firm's public commitment to ethical practices and environmental responsibility. But her faith began to unravel when she was tasked with leading a global environmental sustainability campaign for Galaxy chocolate, a brand owned by the global, family-owned company Mars, Incorporated.

Mars considers itself an ethical company. In 2019, for instance, it noted on its website that "for the second year in a row, The Ethisphere Institute has named us to their list of the 2019 World's Most Ethical Companies." Mars did not make it on the 2025 list.

Perhaps that fall from grace was part flagged in 2023, when a report by Ethical Consumer (EC) criticised Mars, as well as the leading chocolate brands Cadbury, and Nestlé, for having inadequate ethical standards in their cocoa supply chains. Only 17 out of 82 companies the EC investigated reportedly paid cocoa farmers enough to live on and concerns were raised about child labour in the cocoa industry, particularly in West Africa.

Today Mars promises a golden ticket of hope on its website: "We take responsibility without being asked. We support the responsibilities of others."

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Zabrodskaya might disagree.

"Sometimes you look at what you're being asked to advertise, and things don't add up," she says. Tasked with amplifying Mars' sustainability claims about cocoa production, she claims to have soon found jarring contradictions.

"If I'm asked to advertise marginal efforts like building schools in West Africa, the first question is why can't they build their own schools? Why do they need a white saviour? When you Google cocoa environment sustainability, the first things that come up are… extreme poverty, exploitation, deforestation. You see that systemically no progress is bein...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.

Help us build the better media Britain deserves

What will happen at the UK's next general election? It feels insane to even guess. Indeed, why bother when we are just nine months out from the last and seemingly decisive ballot. Normally a majority of 172 would have people thinking about the election after next just like after the last Labour landslide of 1997. But these are not normal times.

I tried to second guess the outcome of 2024 after 2019 and got it horribly wrong. Back then Boris Johnson looked impregnable not just in terms of his 80 parliamentary majority but a seemingly permanent post Brexit realignment of British electoral politics around the Red Wall. Surely only a progressive alliance could combat the shift to the right and stop a second Johnson victory? But around the corner and out of sight lurked not just COVID but the wanton self-destruction of the Conservative party and the fall of the SNP. Parliamentary majorities now just ensure the winning party stays in office - it doesn't make them powerful as the flip leaders, merely try the survive the day and hope something turns up. Which it usually doesn't.

And so, the only question voters had to answer on the 4th July 2024 was not who had the best vision and policies to transform the country, but who could you vote for to kick the Conservatives out. So successfully did the progressive parties focus their efforts, and so systematically and determinedly did the electorate place their tactical votes a record number of over 500 progressive MPs were returned to parliament.

But you wouldn't know it because not being the Conservatives was never going to be enough. To govern demands a vision and a plan to implement, and commentators as politically far apart as Rafael Behr and Michael Gove have, from different vantage points, begun to point out that Labour has neither. Without any directional or operational guide, especially in a poly-crisis world, Government eventually and inevitably becomes a matter of surviving the day. Just nine months after an electoral landslide, Labour has lurched from pessimism to optimism and back again and enacted policies that were once deemed only fit for the Conservatives.

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The consequence is a dramatic drop in the polls, from the already historic low but winning mark of 34% at the election to about 24% today. While the Conservatives show little sign of electoral recovery, Reform has jumped in the opposite direction to Labour adding at least another 10% to their 14% tally at the election. Meanwhile both the Liberal Democrats and the Greens have seen some vote share uplift. Polls regularly have five parties in double digits in a system designed for two. The next election is not just impossible to predict but, if this trend continues, is likely to end up in electoral chaos as tiny shifts in votes from one party to another lead to massive changes in seat allocation.

Add into that the possibility that Keir Starmer won't survive a full term and Labour could very well flip its leadership, just like the Conservatives, in a desperate attempt to revive their fortunes. Also like the Conservatives there is little chance of a comprehensive or convincing vision and plan from any newcomer and so everything will soon spring back to surviving the day.

In all this unprecedented unpredictability what do we know that can help us think about the shape of the next election? The first and biggest point is that living standards is the only ...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.

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According to the website www.simplypsychology.org, projection is a "psychological defence mechanism that involves attributing one's undesirable traits, feelings, or impulses to other people. For instance, someone who is dishonest might accuse others of being dishonest, thereby shifting attention away from their dishonesty".

Projection works as a defence mechanism by helping to protect the ego from anxiety-provoking thoughts or feelings. "By attributing these unwanted aspects to someone or something else, the individual distances themselves from what they find unacceptable within themselves".

I am not a psychologist, but Donald Trump strikes me as a classic case of someone "suffering" (if that is the right word, since in fact it is everyone else who suffers from his behaviour) from projection.

Trump launched his tariff wars because he believes other countries are "ripping off" America with their allegedly unfair trade practices. This, from the man who, throughout his business career, routinely stiffed others - whether by defaulting on bank loans, defrauding investors, failing to reimburse building contractors for their services, or duping students into paying thousands in tuition for fake courses at his now-defunct Trump University.

Trump launched his war on "woke," targeting "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion" initiatives, because these allegedly discriminate on the basis of race and gender. Yet this is the administration that is now quite deliberately eradicating the record of prominent African American people, Native American people and women from the nation's museums and institutions, pushing for schools and colleges to stop teaching the history of race relations, threatening to cut funding or cooperation with private businesses and organisations that maintain DEI programmes, while celebrating the "achievements" of known racists, such as former President Andrew Jackson.

An executive order issued in late March cites the National Museum of African American History and Culture by name and argues that the Smithsonian Institution as a whole is engaging in a "concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation's history." It empowers Vice President JD Vance to review all properties, programmes and presentations to prohibit programmes that "degrade shared American values" or "divide Americans based on race," and orders Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to determine if any monuments since January 2020 "have been removed or changed to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history." Trump has long criticised the removal of Confederate monuments - a movement that gained steam after the May 2020 murder of George Floyd.

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Critics argue that the cumulative impact of these actions will be to sanitize America's history of racism, including slavery, and roll back decades of advances in racial and gender equality.

Trump has also claimed to be a champion of free speech, signing on day one of his new Presidency an executive order decreeing that "no federal officer, employee or agent may unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen."

Yet, in practice, his administration has been busy intimidating opponents into silence - including by threatening Democratic members of Congress with investigation for criticis...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.

Help us build the better media Britain deserves

'Trump officials to monitor immigrants' social media for antisemitism' - the harrowing headline made UK and US media this week, far too frequently without so much as an inverted comma around the term 'antisemitism'.

As one Bluesky user remarked: "You know they aren't talking about actual antisemitism and you are free to write a headline that accurately portrays this smokescreen for what it is."

To give editors the benefit of the doubt, the absurdity of reporting under Donald Trump is such that you cannot even write a headline announcing "reciprocal tariffs" because they turn out to have nothing to do with tariff-reciprocity at all.

And you certainly can't call antisemitism "antisemitism" when it's judged by a man who's right-hand man pairs Nazi salutes with AI-generated territorial claims over Gaza.

But you know antisemitism is not what they're searching for. What they're searching for is sedition.

With this revoking of First Amendment rights from migrants, the MAGA 180 on free speech is complete. Trump and his inner circle have gone from parading as free speech absolutists, to illegally banning access to media organisations that criticise them, sanctioning law firms that represent political opponents, rigging social media algorithms to push party propaganda, pulling federal grants that include language they oppose, publishing a literal list of 'banned words', and attempting to deport critics for non-criminal protest.

Despite this, the UK's right-wing media is busy celebrating Trump's "free speech ultimatum" to the UK, after he reportedly warned Keir Starmer "no free trade without free speech".

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The Spectator's greatest minds can declare without a hint of irony: "The US position at least comes across as liberal and principled". GB News ran the title: "I thank Donald Trump for his free speech ultimatum." This is the libertarian Right that tore us out of the EU because of foreign influence. Now they're cheerleading imperialist US intrusion into our UK policymaking?

The sheer hypocrisy could spark an identity crisis (are we even the word-police anymore, or are we liberalists now?) It's actually pretty straightforward, Femi Oluwole, outspoken political activist, told Media Storm. "It's a really good example of how free speech operates in terms of power.

When Trump didn't have power, he wanted free speech to be absolute so he could say whatever he wanted without being punished for it so that he could win the election. Now he's in power, he needs to make sure that only his narrative is allowed to thrive. Free speech works for you if you don't have power and free speech works against you if you do have power

Femi Oluwole, political activist

The thing is, power imbalances are not reserved to the hierarchies of state. Society is unequal in many ways. And the first thing not being said nearly enough, is that the Right's position on free speech reflects a hierarchy of rights that has a lot to do with race. White people's right to freedom of speech overrules POC's right to freedom from discrimination and violence, but not the other way around.

This explains why the Right saw Starmer's heavy-handed reaction to the anti-immigrant riots last summer as the "biggest threat to free speech in history" (Nigel Farage on Fox News).

But when it comes to Trump's detention of pro-Palestine activists, they suddenly argue there's "a very fine line when your free speech is actually inciting viole...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.

Help us build the better media Britain deserves

The Ministry of Justice has been found guilty of racial discrimination, harassment, and constructive unfair dismissal by an Employment Tribunal, following allegations first revealed by Byline Times last year.

The case centred on Uzo Mbonu, a former prison officer at HMP Swaleside, whose harrowing account of racism, bullying, and neglect, which we reported as part of a Freedom of Information-led investigation that revealed the MoJ had failed to centrally collect data on complaints of racism made by staff or prisoners.

At the time, Byline Times reported how this lack of data had fuelled fears that the true extent of racism in Britain's prison system was being deliberately obscured. Mbonu's account - of being left on probation for nearly double the usual period, racially abused by colleagues, and denied bonuses due to forged paperwork - painted a troubling picture of institutional neglect and hostility.

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Following a nine-day tribunal hearing and deliberation in late 2024 and early 2025, the panel upheld Mbonu's claims of direct race discrimination, racial harassment, and constructive unfair dismissal. His claim of victimisation was dismissed, but the judgement is damning in its detail.

The tribunal found that senior colleagues called Mbonu a "dirty, money-grabbing Black c**t" and a "lazy Black c**t". It ruled that his boss, custodial manager James Richardson, had dishonestly fabricated the record of a disciplinary meeting that never took place - a document later used to exclude Mbonu from a performance bonus scheme.

Despite the forgery being proven, the MoJ failed to discipline Richardson before he left the service. The tribunal criticised this inaction, calling it "more than just mismanagement" and evidence of differential treatment grounded in race.

The judgement concluded that the language used against Mbonu, the institutional indifference to his complaints, and the dishonest actions of his line manager cumulatively created a working environment that was "intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating and offensive".

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In the words of the tribunal: "The burden of proof shifts to the respondent and the respondent has failed to discharge its burden… We are not persuaded it was merely unreasonable treatment."

Speaking after the ruling, Mbonu told Byline Times: "This has been a long, painful journey. I stood alone for years while those around me stayed silent. I raised complaints, wrote emails, followed the rules - and I was punished for it. This judgement proves what I knew all along: that racism is real and rampant in the prison system, and it destroys lives."

He added: "Byline Times told my story when others looked away. Without that exposure, I don't think justice would have been served."

The tribunal also criticised the Ministry of Justice's conduct throughout the process, noting serious failures in disclosure, unresolved internal complaints, and what it described as the "unusual tolerance" of racist language within the prison system.

It was clear, the judgement said, that Mbonu was ostracised by colleagues and that his attempts to challenge racism were repeatedly ignored.

In its original investigat...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour.

To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.

Help us build the better media Britain deserves

Conservative Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock personally helped top secure a Covid PPE contract for a former pizza company controlled by a Conservative donor, newly released documents reveal.

NKD International, owned by George Farha, repeatedly lobbied Hancock prior to securing a £135,000 PPE contract from the Department for Health and Social Care.

Farha had personally donated £11,450 to the Conservative Party and a further £12,500 to it via another company he controls.

The company had no record of previously supplying medical equipment and remarkably, just two days prior to the successful contract award, on 15 April 2020, it changed its name from 'NKD Pizza International Limited' to 'NKD International Limited' - dropping any reference to its previous record of selling fast food.

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According to official records, NKD International was referred to the VIP lane by Dame Donna Kinnair, formerly of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). Reports from 2021, reveal Kinnair was suspended from the RCN "amid concerns over her friendship with a multi-millionaire businessman" - George Farha.

Kinnair repeatedly lobbied Hancock via text message and email regarding Farha's NKD International's offer to supply medical gowns - with Hancock replying to one message stating: "Get him to email me again with the problems - I am working on this directly."

Farha's firm also tried to secure a second multi-million pound PPE deal via the VIP lane, but was unsuccessful.

Documents provided to the COVID Inquiry reveal Hancock's close involvement:

On 11 April 2020, Kinnair had previously sent multiple WhatsApp messages to Hancock introducing Farha. One stated: "George Farha one of your party donators and my friend can get FDA approved gowns here by Wednesday."

According to Kinnair, On 13 April 2020, Hancock "replied by text message and asked me to get Mr Farha to contact him directly - four days later NKD International secured its VIP lane deal from the DHSC.

"On 22 April 2020, according to the witness statement of health officals and less than one week after NKD secured its first PPE contract: "Mr Farha put forward an offer to supply 7.5 million sterile and non sterile gowns from Anhui Medpurest. The offer was to deliver 250,000 gowns per week over a period of 30 weeks on condition of a 50% advance payment per shipment." However, the offer ran into problems as NKD struggled to provide the correct certification for the PPE and officials raised concerns over the financial risks associated with the deal.

On 23 April 2020 Kinnair messaged Hancock and said: "I have to tell you after George has secured a regular supply with China at a fantastic price he is now being given the usual bureaucratic nonesense. With absurd scenarios being suggested. He has delivered and I am always unsure if those around are supporting your endeavours to get gowns and other PPE to the frontline."

According to Kinnair's Witness Statement to the Inquiry, Hancock replied saying: "Get him to email me again with the problems, I am working on this directly"

Hancock repeatedly chased officials regarding the progress of the NKD International offer and also spoke directly with the firm.

Officials highlighted to the Inquiry the "completely atypical" nature of the NKD International contract process, due specifically to the "interest...