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A lobbying and PR firm co-founded by an ally of Dominic Cummings has been given two government contracts without competitive tenders. Contracts have been awarded to Hanbury Strategy, co-founded by director of communications of 2016 Vote Leave campaign https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/04/dominic-cummings-allys-pr-firm-hanbury-strategy-given-covid-19-contracts-without-tenders?CMP=share_btn_tw
Hanbury is the fourth Tory–linked firm to have been awarded work since the start of the pandemic under emergency rules that allow public bodies to bypass the standard procurement rules requiring an open competitive tendering process. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/04/dominic-cummings-allys-pr-firm-hanbury-strategy-given-covid-19-contracts-without-tenders
Others include Topham Guerin, the political communications company behind the Conservative party’s controversial 2019 digital campaign strategy https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/aug/03/topham-guerin-pr-firm-covid-19-contract-conservative-party
and Public First, a policy company run by James Frayne, whose work alongside Cummings dates back to a Eurosceptic campaign 20 years ago, and Rachel Wolf, a former adviser to Gove who co-wrote the Conservative party’s 2019 election manifesto. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/10/firm-with-links-to-gove-and-cummings-given-covid-19-contract-without-open-tender
and Faculty, an artificial intelligence firm. Ben Warner, a former Faculty employee, worked with Cummings on the Vote Leave project, ran the data modelling for Tory general election campaign, and now works closely with Cummings in Downing Street https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/04/dominic-cummings-allys-pr-firm-hanbury-strategy-given-covid-19-contracts-without-tenders
