London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Sunday, Oct 26, 2025

Rayner urges Tories to repay £580k of public funds spent on polling

Rayner urges Tories to repay £580k of public funds spent on polling

Labour says rules broken over contract that examined attitudes towards Keir Starmer and Sadiq Khan
Labour is calling on the Conservative party to pay back £580,000 of taxpayers’ money spent by the government on polling, including testing public attitudes to Keir Starmer, at the height of the Covid crisis.

Angela Rayner has written to the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, urging him to investigate the contract, which was awarded after the personal intervention of Boris Johnson’s then chief adviser, Dominic Cummings.

Rayner said: “Conservative ministers have abused taxpayers’ money for their own party political interests and the Conservative party needs to repay this money immediately.

“Taxpayers’ money is not the personal cashpoint of Tory ministers to do as they please with. We need a fully independent inquiry into how much taxpayers’ money has been abused in this way and which rules were broken by the ministers and special advisers who authorised it.”

Cummings phoned his former Vote Leave colleague Paul Stephenson, who also worked on the Tories’ 2019 general election campaign, to ask if Stephenson’s company, Hanbury Strategy, could carry out the work in March last year.

As part of the polling contract, the company examined public attitudes to Starmer and London mayor Sadiq Khan.

One proposal under discussion at the time was to hold joint press conferences with Johnson and Starmer, against the backdrop of concerns about compliance with lockdown, in particular among members of the public who mistrusted the Conservatives.

The plan was rejected by Downing Street before it had even been mooted with Starmer’s team, but Labour argues that by testing the public’s attitude to the Labour leader and Khan, Hanbury was carrying out political work, which should never have been funded with taxpayers’ money.

Hanbury had previously been brought in to sift potential candidates to be special advisers in Johnson’s government.

Rayner has called on Case to investigate whether Johnson or cabinet office minister Michael Gove, the former chair of Vote Leave, were involved in awarding the contract – and whether other sums of public money were spent on political activities.

The contract with Hanbury, to conduct opinion polls on the public’s view of the government’s Covid response, is subject to a legal challenge by the Good Law Project (GLP), which argues that it shows “apparent bias”.

Documents made public at a court hearing last Friday included an email sent on 20 March 2020, in which Cummings asked the most senior civil servant responsible for contracts to sign off the budget immediately, and that if “anybody in CABOFF [the Cabinet Office] whines”, to tell them Cummings had “ordered it” from the prime minister.

The Cabinet Office, which is defending the GLP’s challenge, has insisted it acted lawfully, and that the polling was used to shape public health messaging at a critical time in the pandemic.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “We do not carry out party political polling.” They added that an independent review of cabinet office procurement had already been carried out last December by Nigel Boardman.

A Hanbury spokesperson said the company agreed to do the work “at extremely short notice” although it involved reputational risk.

They said: “Our work contributed to what was a hugely successful public health communications campaign which undoubtedly prevented many deaths. For that reason, if we had to make the choice again we would still agree to step up and help in this time of crisis.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
China and Russia Deploy Seductive Espionage Networks to Infiltrate U.S. Tech Sector
Apple’s ‘iPhone Air’ Collapses After One Month — Another Major Misstep for the Tech Giant
Graham Potter Begins New Chapter as Sweden Head Coach on Short-Term Deal
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa Alleges Poison Plot via Chocolate and Jam
Lakestar to Halt External Fundraising as Investor in Revolut and Spotify
U.S. Innovation Ranking Under Scrutiny as China Leads Output Outputs but Ranks 10th
Three Men Arrested in London on Suspicion of Spying for Russia
Porsche Reverses EV Strategy as New CEO Bets on Petrol and Hybrids
Singapore’s Prime Minister Warns of ‘Messy’ Transition to Post-American Global Order
Andreessen Horowitz Sets Sights on Ten-Billion-Dollar Fund for Tech Surge
US Administration Under President Donald Trump Reportedly Lifts Ban on Ukraine’s Use of Storm Shadow Missiles Against Russia
‘Frightening’ First Night in Prison for Sarkozy: Inmates Riot and Shout ‘Little Nicolas’
White House Announces No Imminent Summit Between Trump and Putin
US and Qatar Warn EU of Trade and Energy Risks from Tough Climate Regulation
Apple Challenges EU Digital Markets Act Crackdown in Landmark Court Battle
Nicolas Sarkozy begins five-year prison term at La Santé in Paris
Japan stocks surge to record as Sanae Takaichi becomes Prime Minister
This Is How the 'Heist of the Century' Was Carried Out at the Louvre in Seven Minutes: France Humiliated as Crown with 2,000 Diamonds Vanishes
China Warns UK of ‘Consequences’ After Delay to London Embassy Approval
France’s Wealthy Shift Billions to Luxembourg and Switzerland Amid Tax and Political Turmoil
"Sniper Position": Observation Post Targeting 'Air Force One' Found Before Trump’s Arrival in Florida
Shouting Match at the White House: 'Trump Cursed, Threw Maps, and Told Zelensky – "Putin Will Destroy You"'
Windows’ Own ‘Siri’ Has Arrived: You Can Now Talk to Your Computer
Thailand and Singapore Investigate Cambodian-Based Prince Group as U.S. and U.K. Sanctions Unfold
‘No Kings’ Protests Inflate Numbers — But History Shows Nations Collapse Without Strong Executive Power
Chinese Tech Giants Halt Stablecoin Launches After Beijing’s Regulatory Intervention
Manhattan Jury Holds BNP Paribas Liable for Enabling Sudanese Government Abuses
Trump Orders Immediate Release of Former Congressman George Santos After Commuting Prison Sentence
S&P Downgrades France’s Credit Rating, Citing Soaring Debt and Political Instability
Ofcom Rules BBC’s Gaza Documentary ‘Materially Misleading’ Over Narrator’s Hamas Ties
Diane Keaton’s Cause of Death Revealed as Pneumonia, Family Confirms
×