A private firm run by two long-term associates of Michael Gove and Dominic Cummings has been handed almost a million pounds of taxpayers' cash for advice on Covid-19 and reorganising the health and care system.
The £956,000 was handed to the company directly, in contracts which were not put out to tender. Public First is a small lobbying and research firm run by James Frayne, a Brexit ally of Mr Cummings, and Rachel Wolf, who co-wrote the 2019 Tory manifesto.
It had already been reported the firm had been awarded an £840,000, no-competition contract to research public opinion on government policies.
The Mirror can now reveal the firm were given another £116,000 by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to identify ways to "lock in