The £1.4bn Covid winner no one remembers - and its Tory connection

A logistics firm with ties to a Conservative MP was paid £1.4 billion in government Covid contracts – including £178.5 million for personal protective equipment that was never used.

The company, Uniserve, based in Upminster, Essex, was one of the biggest winners of pandemic contracts, securing seven PPE deals worth more than £300 million through the government’s controversial “VIP lane” for politically connected suppliers.

💷 The £1.4 billion Covid windfall

Uniserve, owned by businessman Iain Liddell, was initially brought in to ship ventilators and PPE from China. That role quickly ballooned into a £573 million “freight contract” and a further £304 million in direct supply deals – all awarded by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) during the height of the Covid crisis.

But fresh scrutiny has emerged following a High Court judgment against PPE Medpro – the company linked to Baroness Michelle Mone – which also drew Uniserve into the spotlight.

Justice Sara Cockerill found that Uniserve had been responsible for inspecting PPE Medpro’s gowns in China before shipping, yet there was “doubt” over whether those checks ever happened. The gowns later arrived in England with invalid labelling and were rejected as unsafe.

Had the inspections taken place, Cockerill said, the taxpayer might not have lost £122 million on the deal.

⚠️ Millions wasted – and no accountability

The DHSC admitted it had already paid PPE Medpro in full before the gowns were shipped. After the faulty stock was rejected, the company collapsed into administration, leaving taxpayers unable to recover the money.

According to Transparency International UK, nearly £9.35 billion in PPE was bought during the first four months of the pandemic before quality inspections began – with £3.3 billion later found to be unusable in the NHS.

Uniserve disputes the judge’s findings. Its lawyers insist the company wasn’t required to carry out quality checks at the time and only took on that responsibility later in 2020.

🧑‍💼 The Tory connection

The firm’s political ties have reignited questions about how pandemic contracts were awarded.

Uniserve’s founder Iain Liddell was a landlord to Conservative MP Julia Lopez, whose constituency office sits on Uniserve’s site. Lopez was also appointed to the Cabinet Office during Boris Johnson’s 2020 reshuffle.

Emails disclosed to the Covid inquiry reveal that Liddell contacted Lopez directly on 2 April 2020 – before Uniserve received its first PPE contracts – to complain about delays in government decision-making. Two weeks later, Uniserve was formally referred to the VIP lane and awarded its first £87 million in contracts.

Lopez denies any involvement in the awards and says she was on maternity leave at the time.

Former Cabinet Office minister Lord Theodore Agnew, who introduced Uniserve into the VIP system, told the inquiry he “didn’t even know what Uniserve is.”

📦 The Uniserve defence

Liddell maintains that his company was chosen purely for its logistics expertise, not political connections.

“Contracts were awarded on the basis of proven performance and capability to deliver, not on the basis of political connection,” he said.

“Uniserve helped deliver over 44 billion units of PPE and vital equipment to the UK. I am proud of the role Uniserve played during the pandemic.”

Despite government claims of “commercial confidentiality,” Uniserve’s PPE worth £178.5 million remains marked “do not supply.”

The company’s profits soared during the pandemic – from £46 million in 2020 to £144 million by the end of 2021.

🔍 Growing calls for answers

Campaigners and bereaved families say the revelations highlight systemic failures in government procurement and accountability.

Meg Hillier, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said:

“We’re still uncovering the true scale of waste and political influence in pandemic spending. The public deserves transparency about where their money went.”

For now, the billion-pound firm at the centre of the controversy remains defiant – and profitable.