Government can't find minutes of Covid meeting with Randox

The government has been "unable to locate a formal note" of what was said in a call between health minister Lord Bethell and Covid contractor Randox.

Owen Paterson, who quit as MP amid controversy over his paid lobbying for Randox, was also on the call.

The government has promised to publish the minutes of what was said after opposition demands.

During a debate in the Commons, Health Minister Gillian Keegan told MPs she had not been able to find them.

Labour's Dame Angela Eagle called it an "astonishing revelation".

Another Labour MP shouted: "Staggering."

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said he hoped the ministerial officials would look into this, adding: "I would expect that government meetings that take place with people around would always be minuted."

Mr Paterson was found by the Commons standards watchdog to have engaged in paid lobbying of the government in his role as a £100,000 a year consultant for Randox.

He subsequently resigned as an MP and denies breaking Commons lobbying rules.

The diagnostics company was awarded nearly £600m in contracts during the pandemic without tender.

At Prime Minister's Questions, Boris Johnson said he was "very happy to publish all the details of the Randox contracts, which have been investigated by the National Audit Office already".

But Labour is attempting to force the government to release minutes of the phone call between Randox executives, Mr Paterson and Lord Bethell that took place on 9 April 2020.

Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner suggested the lack of minutes was in breach of the ministerial code.

She said a decision to award Randox a £347m contract "having failed to deliver on a previous £133m contract" was made after the conference call.

Liberal Democrat former minister Alistair Carmichael asked Ms Keegan to publish the minutes of the telephone conference call.

Ms Keegan replied: "In terms of the minutes, I think we've said we will publish things here in the library."

She later said: "We will review what information is held, that's in scope, and we will come back to Parliament and deposit them in the libraries of the House. We will commit to do that."

Pressed further by Labour MP Tony Lloyd on the Randox meeting, Ms Keegan said: "The meeting he refers to was a courtesy call from the minister to Randox to discuss RNA extraction kits.

"That was declared on the ministerial register of calls and meetings, and we have been unable to locate a formal note of that meeting, but all the other notes that are available with regard to this - and that meeting, by the way, was after any contracts were let with Randox."