Firm with links to Gove and Cummings given Covid-19 contract without open tender
by David Conn and Peter Geoghegan from on (#55J2A)
Research company owned by associates of senior Tory and PM's adviser gets 840,000 job
The Cabinet Office has awarded an 840,000 contract to research public opinion about government policies to a company owned by two long-term associates of Michael Gove and Dominic Cummings, without putting the work out for tender.
Public First, a small policy and research company in London, is run by James Frayne, whose work alongside Cummings - the prime minister's senior adviser - 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.
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