Bad habits

Like the Bourbons, it seems that this Tory government has learnt nothing and forgotten everything when it comes to awarding lucrative public sector contracts.

The Mirror reveals that a pair of wealthy former Tory donors are set to profit from a £6.4million Home Office contract to practice forcing asylum seekers onto planes to Rwanda:

The Mirror revealed earlier this year that the Government had taken over a vast film studio at the disused Cardington airfield ahead of the deportation training. Security firm Mitie will work with elite prison “riot squad” officers to train up escorts in the former hanger building containing three airplane fuselages.

Now details of the £6,425,285 contract for the “provision of facilities for Use of Force training”, which started in October and runs until the end of 2024, have been published. It was signed with HCP LR Cardington LP, a property partnership with complex ownership but linked to a pair of super-rich Tory donors.

The “HCP” stands for Hackman Capital Partners, a privately-owned property investment firm based in Los Angeles which specialises in film and TV studios. The “LR” stands for UK-based London and Regional Properties, which is owned by billionaire brothers Ian and Richard Livingstone.

They gave nearly £150,000 to the Tories between 2005 and 2018, including a £10,000 donation to Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron’s 2005 leadership campaign. The website for HCP states: “The studio is owned by Hackman Capital Partners in partnership with London and Regional Properties.”

A spokesperson for LRP said the firm “declined to comment”, which HCP did not respond. Hanger 2 at Cardington, near Bedford, has been used as a film set for a string of top Hollywood productions, including Netflix’s Squid Game: The Challenge, two Christopher Nolan Batman films, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Tim Burton’s Dumbo.

Private security and outsourcing firm Mitie is advertising for £36,000 a year “use of force instructors” who will “work alongside” the Prison Service’s National Tactical Resource Group, a small elite group of prison officers specially trained to deal with riots and similar violent situations in the UK’s jails.

As well as the £6.4m in rent, the Home Office is spending £670,000 on hiring three aircraft fuselages. Another £315,000 bill is for catering but it is not known how much will be paid to Mitie for the training.

These costs are on top of the £240m the UK government has already paid to Rwanda so far before a single asylum seeker has been deported to the African country. A further payment of £50million is likely to be made this year.

You'd think that they would have learnt by now after the row over expensive PPE contracts being given to donors and friends of ministers, but bad habits are hard to break.