Neil O’Brien: why has he been allowed to work in a government department that hands out contracts to his wife’s firm?
Here’s another Tory conflict of interest – and it’s nepotism again, too.
Like prime minister Rishi Sunak, the Conservative minister for Primary Health Care – Neil O’Brien – is married to a woman with an interest in a private firm that receives government contracts.
His wife Jemma is GP engagement lead at Circle Health, which receives public money from the Tories to perform operations at its 54 private hospitals (Circle was the first private health firm to take over an NHS hospital).
Tory Neil O'Brien MP Minister for Primary Health Care on TV today
Guess what?HIS WIFE has top job in private healthcare Circle Health Group, 54 private hospitals "have your NHS treatment at one of our hospitals….all costs will be covered by the NHS"
RThttps://t.co/i3hTydvF0k— Carol Vorderman (@carolvorders) May 9, 2023
What is this man doing in a government department that may hand contracts to a company where his wife works?
It’s a clear conflict of interest.
And it’s actually a miracle that we’ve found out about it from the new MPs’ register of interests, that has attracted ridicule for failing to list all of the businesses that are at least part-owned by Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty.
From the Mirror article:
Mr Sunak has been accused of a “complete lack of transparency” over his own wife’s investments.
The list of interests did not include details of the shareholdings owned by his heiress wife, Akshata Murty.
Under the section for relevant interests held by a spouse or close relative, Mr Sunak’s entry included his wife’s venture capital company Catamaran Ventures and unnamed “direct shareholdings”.
A footnote adds that these include her “minority shareholding” in Koru Kids, but no details were given for any of her other shareholdings.
Farcically, the list did not include her £468million stake in Infosys, the Indian IT firm founded by her billionaire father.
And Infosys get government contracts, of course.
Corrupt?
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