MATT Hancock has denied the UK Government chose not to join the EU’s joint-procurement scheme for ventilators as a “political decision” less than an hour after a senior civil servant told MPs it was.
Sir Simon McDonald, the Foreign Office permanent under-secretary, told the Foreign Affairs Committee earlier that the decision not to join the effort was a “political decision” – not due to a communication issue as figures like Michael Gove had previously claimed.
The SNP have been critical of the UK Government’s failure to join the scheme and had demanded “full transparency” into the decision to keep the UK out of it.
READ MORE: Covid-19: Not joining EU ventilator scheme was 'political decision'
Stories around the procurement scheme have been full of twists and turns with a Government spokesperson first saying we did not join as we are no longer in the EU – despite the UK still being welcome to join the bloc’s coronavirus response – before ministers told the public there was some kind of communication issue preventing the UK from joining.
Now Health Secretary Hancock has said it was not a “political decision” at all and the UK is now in the scheme, though this had not been announced by Number 10.
There have been many rows surrounding the UK’s failure to join the scheme to bulk buy the essential kit which helps those worst affected by Covid-19 to breathe.
At the Foreign Affairs Committee today McDonald told MPs: “It was a political decision, the mission … to Brussels briefed ministers on what was available, what was on offer.”
While the SNP has repeatedly called on the Government to provide clarity on what really happened with the scheme, today appears not to have helped with Hancock and McDonald contradicting one another in such a short space of time.
It first emerged the UK would not be joining the scheme in March, when SNP shadow health secretary Philippa Whitford urged the Government to explain “how the decision was taken, what the reasoning was and whether the devolved governments had any say in the matter”.
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