Conservative Fixer Lord Feldman Lobbied Boris Johnson to Push Through Dyson’s Ventilator Contract    

Former Conservative Party Chairman and fundraiser Lord Feldman urged Boris Johnson to push through a contract for thousands of ventilators from leading Brexiteer James Dyson during the pandemic, saying he was “on a mission” to get it secured, new messages released by the Covid Inquiry reveal.

Publication of the messages between Johnson and his senior ministers and advisers, comes after Byline Times revealed claims in an independent report commissioned by the Inquiry that Dyson had been handed “preferential treatment” in the awarding of a contract to his company for 10,000 ventilators, in what was described as an “affront” to normal procurement rules.

According to the report, Conservative Minister Michael Gove had been “insistent that an order” was placed with Dyson’s firm.

This paper can now also reveal that in the days before the deal was made, both Boris Johnson and Conservative party Peer Lord Andrew Feldman also lobbied Government ministers to unblock delays in its signing.

On 25 March 2020, as the British Public adjusted to life under the first national lockdown the then PM Boris Johnson shared with Health Minister Matt Hancock a message he had received from Lord Feldman, who he refers to as “Felders”, escalating the need to unblock the procurement process for Dyson’s ventilator machines. The message read:

“Dyson has a ventilator ready to go. We can have 3,000 a week in 3 weeks made in the UK. It’s safe, effective and loses less oxygen. Rhys Williams has blocked it under the misapprehension that oxygen passes through the motor – that is total bollocks. As far as I can see we haven’t actually ordered a single UK produced ventilator – we are at risk of fiddling whilst Rome burns. I’ve spoke to Matt and James Bethell about it and I’ve escalated the issue to everyone I can think of. 

“When you see Matt this am you need to ask about Dyson ventilator and what is blocking it. Sorry but I’m on a mission – Dyson knows what he is doing and won’t risk his global brand reputation delivering dodgy ventilators”

Hancock replies within one hour saying “i’ve brought Feldman in – he’s doing God’s work” before agreeing to discuss the matter with Johnson later the same morning.

Later, Michael Gove appears to instruct officials to place a contract with Dyson for 10,000 ventilators.

An email sent by civil servants five hours after Boris Johnson and Lord Feldman’s messages, with the subject header “Purchase order for Dyson” confirms Michael Gove had “instructed” officials to “proceed at pace”.

Ministers appear to have had Dyson in mind prior to the award of the contract. An earlier exchange of messages on March 20, 2020, between Johnson and Hancock, shows the former Prime Minister sharing an undisclosed image with Hancock, accompanied by the message “Dyson freaking”.

Hancock replied: “I have also received the same. I will talk to Dyson and Michael
and sort it.

“At the heart of this problem is [Cabinet Office] trying to do things like buy ventilators that are core DHSC responsibility.”

The Covid Inquiry launched the first of four weeks of public hearings interrogating Government procurement of PPE, Covid tests and Ventilators during the pandemic. 

The first witness to be called before the inquiry, chaired by Baroness Heather Hallet, was independent procurement expert Professor Dr Albert Sanchez-Graells. The professor’s findings exposed the political pressure piled on civil servants during this period. 

The contents of Professor Sanchez-Graells’s expert report were published by the inquiry on Tuesday and for the first time reveal the true extent of Conservative Party grandee and former Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove’s role in ensuring Dyson were awarded a contract to provide 10,000 ventilators as part of the “Ventilator Challenge”.

The Ventilator Challenge was the UK Government’s flagship procurement programme launched in early 2020 in a desperate bid to bolster medical supplies as the country entered its first national lockdown.

Of the £277 million spent on Ventilators by the Cabinet Office, £143 million was written off. Furthermore, details of the contracts remained unpublished for over three years (in a breach of transparency laws) and were only released to the public following a legal challenge by Good Law Project in early 2023. 

Professor Sanchez-Graell’s report focused on a contract included in the Ventilator Challenge which was awarded to Dyson in March 2020. The report raised “serious questions” over the legality of the Dyson deal, concluding that:

“Favouring Dyson due to the political pressure Ministers were under would have been clearly problematic and, in my view, beyond being objectionable, it would have raised serious questions as to its legality  It would also have raised questions on the origin of the political pressure”.

In November 2020, the Cabinet Office, in response to a report on procurement by the National Audit Office, claimed in a press release that  “they [NAO] found no evidence ministers were involved in procurement decisions”. This claim was repeated on numerous occasions by the former government. We now know this isn’t true.

Ultimately, the initial contract awarded to Dyson was cancelled. A Dyson Spokesperson told the Guardian, “Sir James Dyson responded to a personal call from the prime minister of the United Kingdom, to develop and make a medical-grade ventilator in 30 days during the national emergency.

“Dyson had no intention of manufacturing ventilators for profit. Far from receiving any commercial benefit, there was significant commercial cost to Dyson, which diverted 450 engineers away from commercial projects.

“Mercifully, treatments changed, and mass use of ventilators was no longer seen as an effective remedy, the UK government cancelled the order it had placed, and none were ever sold overseas.

“Uniquely among the many businesses involved, James Dyson did not seek payment for any of the £20m the company spent on the project – rather this was its contribution to the national effort to save lives. In addition, Dyson did not claim any furlough money, subsidy, or government loans related to the Covid-19 pandemic anywhere in the world.”

Dyson was approached for comment.