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Cummings lobbied for ‘friends’ to get fat contract for COVID focus groups

Shadow minister says it's ‘appalling’ that the government dismissed concerns of bias raised after openDemocracy investigation into Public First contract

By Adam Bychawski and Peter Geoghegan
Cummings lobbied for ‘friends’ to get fat contract for COVID focus groups
Cummings said he was the "driving decision-maker” behind the government's decision to hire Public First. | David Cliff/NurPhoto/PA Images
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Dominic Cummings pushed for a government contract to be awarded without tender to a company run by his "friends", according to newly published court documents.

PR firm Public First was paid £564,393 to research public opinion about the government's response to the pandemic, as revealed in July last year by openDemocracy and the Guardian.  

At the time, the Cabinet Office said it was "nonsense" that Public First's long-running connections to Cummings, then Boris Johnson’s special adviser, and cabinet office minister Michael Gove influenced the decision to award the firm the contract.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0