Gummer is the second Tory peer to face investigation for potential breaches of the rules, following the investigation announced in January into Michelle Mone.
These prohibitions include a bar against peers “making use of their position to lobby … members of either House, ministers or officials”.
The second states that peers “must not seek by parliamentary means to confer exclusive benefit” on a company in which they have a financial interest. The first prohibits peers from seeking to profit due to their membership of the Lords “by accepting or agreeing to accept payment or other incentive or reward in return for providing parliamentary advice or services”. The Lords standards watchdog announced on Tuesday that Gummer is under investigation for “alleged involvement in procuring contracts for SG Recruitment UK”, leading to potential breaches of two rules in peers’ code of conduct.
The award of £50m of PPE contracts appears to have transformed its financial fortunes in the year to 31 March 2020 the company turned over less than £500,000. SG Recruitment was a small company before the pandemic, which worked to recruit nurses and other healthcare professionals to the NHS. Earlier this month he updated his Lords register of interests to state that he ceased to be a director of the company in July 2021 but he remains a shareholder. At the time, Gummer was a director and shareholder of the parent company, Sumner Group Holdings. The first, for £23.9m, awarded in April 2020, was for the supply of coveralls the second, for £26.1m to supply hand sanitiser, was awarded the following month. Gummer’s fellow Tory peer, Lord Feldman, who was working for the Department of Health and Social Care as an unpaid adviser, referred SG Recruitment to the “VIP lane” for politically connected companies, and it was awarded two PPE contracts.
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