The Conservative Party accepted a £50,000 donation from a pharmaceutical boss who exploited a pricing rules loophole to hike up the cost of drugs sold to the NHS, it has emerged.
The Times reports that Amit Patel donated the money to the Tories during the general election campaign in 2017 - a year after the newspaper revealed that his company Auden Mckenzie was among several businesses that had drastically inflated the prices of old drugs.
Following investigations by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Patel was banned last week from standing as director of any company for breaking competition law with the so-called “price gouging” exercise.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
In a separate charge, he also admitted tax fraud, paying nearly £15m to settle a case with HM Revenue & Customs over payments for fake invoices.
Auden Mckenzie was able to sell drugs at inflated prices by “exploiting a loophole in NHS pricing rules that meant drugs were no longer subject to a profit cap if they were ‘debranded’ and sold under a generic name”, The Times says.
Under his ownership, the company bumped up the price of an oral steroid of which the firm was the sole manufacturer from 70p a packet to £66.
A Conservative Party spokesperson told the newspaper that all large donations, defined as single amounts over £7,500, “are received in good faith. They are properly and transparently declared to the Electoral Commission, published by them, and comply fully with the law.”
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––For a round-up of the most important stories from around the world - and a concise, refreshing and balanced take on the week’s news agenda - try The Week magazine. Start your trial subscription today –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
In the final weeks ahead of last December’s general election, The Guardian reported that the Tories had been handed “large donations worth 26 times the amount received by Labour”.
Boris Johnson’s party raised a total of more than £5.67m in large donations from donors including “the wife of a Russian businessman, property developers and a theatre producer”, the newspaper said.
Meanwhile, The Sunday Times reported that Johnson had blocked the publication of a report into Russian interference in British politics that named “nine Russian business people who gave money to the Conservative Party”.
-
The Icelandic women’s strike 50 years onIn The Spotlight The nation is ‘still no paradise’ for women, say campaigners
-
Mall World: why are people dreaming about a shopping centre?Under The Radar Thousands of strangers are dreaming about the same thing and no one sure why
-
Why scientists are attempting nuclear fusionThe Explainer Harnessing the reaction that powers the stars could offer a potentially unlimited source of carbon-free energy, and the race is hotting up
-
Five takeaways from Plaid Cymru’s historic Caerphilly by-election winThe Explainer The ‘big beasts’ were ‘humbled’ but there was disappointment for second-placed Reform too
-
The new age of book banningThe Explainer How America’s culture wars collided with parents and legislators who want to keep their kids away from ‘dangerous’ ideas
-
Taking the low road: why the SNP is still standing strongTalking Point Party is on track for a fifth consecutive victory in May’s Holyrood election, despite controversies and plummeting support
-
Five policies from the Tory conferenceIn Depth Party leader Kemi Badenoch has laid out the Conservative plan for a potential future government
-
Behind the ‘Boriswave’: Farage plans to scrap indefinite leave to remainThe Explainer The problem of the post-Brexit immigration surge – and Reform’s radical solution
-
Charlie Kirk honored as ‘martyr’ at memorial rallySpeed Read At a service for the slain conservative activist, speakers included President Donald Trump and many top administration officials
-
Can the Lib Dems be a party of government again?Today's Big Question Leader Ed Davey is urged to drop the stunts and present a serious plan for the country
-
What difference will the 'historic' UK-Germany treaty make?Today's Big Question Europe's two biggest economies sign first treaty since WWII, underscoring 'triangle alliance' with France amid growing Russian threat and US distance
