Matt Hancock’s shares in his sister’s firm approved as an NHS supplier should have been declared, a watchdog says, but it has concluded he was left in the dark.
The failure was “a result of his lack of knowledge and in no way deliberate, and therefore, in technical terms, a minor breach of the ministerial code”.
Lord Geidt, Boris Johnson’s new adviser on ministerial interests, concluded: “In coming to this finding, I recognise that Mr Hancock has acted with integrity.”
The inquiry was launched after, in March, Mr Hancock declared he had acquired 20 per cent of a firm called Topwood Ltd, which provides secure storage and both scans and shreds documents.
But the entry, in the Commons register did not reveal that his sister, Emily Gilruth, is a director and owns a larger portion of the shares – or that it had links to the NHS.
Labour was quick to attack “cronyism at the heart of government”. Topwood also won £300,000 of business from NHS Wales, although Mr Hancock has no responsibility for that body.