TORY MPs are receiving large donations and earning thousands of pounds from links to the private health sector, the Sunday National can reveal.
An investigation has found numerous examples of Conservative MPs receiving donations or work connected with private healthcare firms, pharmaceutical companies and social care providers.
Details of the funding have been obtained from declarations on the House of Commons Register of Members’ Financial Interests.
MPs are not allowed to act as “paid advocates” and have to declare their financial interests on the register.
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However SNP MP Peter Grant (below), who brought forward a Private Members’ Bill earlier this month to enshrine protection for the NHS as publicly owned and operated in law, said people would be surprised by the “sheer extent and intimacy” of the links.
He said: “You simply can’t trust the Tories and this is only what they’ve had to legally declare – I fear we’re just scratching the surface.
“Under the SNP, the NHS will always remain in public hands. That is why I’m bringing forward my NHS Protection Bill – to protect Scotland’s health service from US-style privatisation in any post-Brexit trade deals.”
Examples include current UK health secretary Matt Hancock, who received a £10,000 donation for his leadership campaign bid last year from Wol Kolade, head of Livingbridge private equity firm that owns Vanguard Healthcare, which provides mobile facilities such as operating theatres and wards.
Hancock’s predecessor as health secretary Jeremy Hunt received a donation of £20,000 in June last year from Mustafa Mohammed, the owner of Genix Healthcare, a private dental care provider. The records also show Sir Iain Duncan Smith has an ongoing position since March 2018 as a member of the international advisory board of Tunstall Health Group, a digital healthcare group.
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The former work and pensions secretary, who receives £20,000 a year in quarterly instalments for up to 30 hours a year, says the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACoBA) was consulted.
Former Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell (below), the MP for Sutton Coldfield who was at the centre of the “plebgate” row in 2012, received £30,000 a year as a senior adviser to UK Global Health Care Ltd – which is involved in hospital activities – for five days work. The role was listed from July 1, 2017, and suspended in March last year.
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Ranil Jayawardena, MP for North East Hampshire, is the director of firm Ringshall Ltd whose clients include pharmaceutical company PepTcell Ltd. In return for four days work a year as a non-executive director, Ringshall Ltd receives share options valued at £20,000, plus there is another £20,000 of share options for four days of strategic consultancy.
In the register he states: “I have been appointed as the non-executive director of PepTcell Ltd and will provide the strategic consultancy personally.”
The list also shows others have links to social care providers, such as MP for Wolverhampton West Stuart Anderson, who registered £5000 from Sevacare (UK) Ltd in January, and Halesowen and Rowley Regis MP James Morris, who received a £10,000 donation from Carlton Care Homes Ltd in September last year.
Education secretary Gavin Williamson received £3000 from St Philips Care Caledonia Ltd in November, while Waveney MP Peter Aldous registered a donation of £2000 to the General Election Fighting Fund from Althea Healthcare Properties.
Mike Freer, MP for Finchley and Golders Green, registered a £10,000 donation in January from Advinia Health Care, which operates care homes. He told the Sunday National: “They are based in my constituency and the owners are personal friends.”
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The Conservative Party declined to comment on the information in the financial interests register, saying it was a matter for individual MPs.
The Sunday National attempted to contact all the MPs on Friday night.
During the General Election, Boris Johnson was forced to deny claims that sales to the NHS would be part of post-Brexit trade talks with US President Donald Trump.
The UK Government has stated the NHS will “never be for sale” to the private sector.
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