Geraint Davies – 2022 Speech on Government PPE Contracts, Michelle Mone and PPE Medpro

The speech made by Geraint Davies, the Labour MP for Swansea West, in the House of Commons on 24 November 2022.

Geraint Davies (Swansea West) (Lab/Co-op)

The Welsh Labour Government received £874 million for PPE as its population-proportionate share, but spent only £300 million—about a third of the money given. That suggests, says Cardiff University, that the UK Government could have saved £8 billion, or £300 a household across the UK, had they used public authorities, health authorities and councils instead of private profiteering contractors known to Ministers. Will the Minister look carefully at the Welsh model and, in future, use the public sector rather than private sector cronies known to Ministers such as the former Health and Social Care Secretary, the right hon. Member for West Suffolk (Matt Hancock), who is out in the jungle making more money for himself?

Neil O’Brien

Inevitably, a huge amount of the PPE that is produced in the world is produced by private companies. There is no world in which we could avoid the use of private companies to supply PPE.