SECOND TAKE
THE GUARDIAN: Name the firms that got state-backed Covid-19 loans
The public must be able to see if Britain's state loans went to politically connected insiders or tax havens
The UK public have a right to know who the recipients of £50bn of government-backed coronavirus loans are. By not releasing details of the 1.2-million businesses that accessed cheap, guaranteed state funding, ministers are leaving the government open to accusations that it has something to hide.
This charge is easier to make because the default setting of Boris Johnson’s government has been secrecy. Only when ministers have been taken to court have they been forced to reveal details of public contracts awarded under emergency rules. The three contracts so far made public represent a sliver of the hundreds signed to procure £15bn of personal protective equipment to protect frontline staff. But they already tell a story, according to the Good Law Project, of “staggering sums of money, political connections, vast waste on duff product — and most of all a lack of transparency”...
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