Ministers’ procurement bill a ‘charter for cronies’, says Labour

Opposition plans to put forward amendments to outlaw ‘VIP lanes’ and introduce clawback clauses

Ministers have been accused of writing a “charter for cronies” that would legalise its Covid “VIP lane” and hand more power to ministers, ahead of its procurement bill returning to the Commons.

Labour backs the principle of consolidating the “spaghetti” of different procurement rules to create a more straightforward framework, but has signalled to ministers that they must remove loopholes from the bill.