The UK’s official Covid inquiry appears to have distanced itself from a pair of Tory-linked PR firms, months after openDemocracy revealed concerns about their involvement.
Although M&C Saatchi has not been barred from applying for further contracts or from subcontracting 23Red, an official document states that the inquiry is looking for “new partners” to continue the firms’ work with bereaved families now that their agreements have ended.
M&C Saatchi, which had orchestrated the government’s “Better Health” obesity campaign during the pandemic and worked on the Conservative Party’s 2010 manifesto, was hired in October 2022 to manage part of the inquiry’s “listening exercise” with bereaved families now called Every Story Matters.
