Campaigners have brought a legal challenge to the way Public First was rushed in to assist the government in the first stage of the pandemic, receiving more than £500,000 in public funds.
The communication and focus group agency, founded by long-standing friends of Mr Cummings, tested the government’s health messaging in the pandemic, delivering rapid reports from focus groups in a bid to improve its communications operation.
The work was handed to the agency without a formal bidding process, leading to claims of “apparent bias”.
Public First was co-founder by James Frayne, who worked with Mr Cummings on a Eurosceptic campaign two decades ago, and his wife Rachel Wolf, a former advisor to Michael Gove and one of the authors of the 2019 Conservative Party manifesto.
The High Court on Monday heard internal conversations between government civil servants about the Public Contract, with one commenting that the agency is “way, way too close to No 10 to be objective”.
Catherine Hunt, head of insight and evaluation for the Prime Minister’s Office and Cabinet Office Communication team, called the focus groups “ridiculous”, court papers show, and she described the work as “Tory party research agency tests Tory party narrative on public money”.
In a statement to the court, she distanced herself from the “frivolous and light-hearted” comment and hailed the work that Public First did.
“In my view Public First did a brilliant job in the time that they worked with us, producing work of a very high standard to incredibly tight deadlines, and contributing significantly to the development of public health policies and messaging at a time of crisis, helping to reduce infections and save lives”, she said.
Helen Stratton, who works in the Covid-19 Communications Hub, had privately said last year: “I have genuine concerns about the way in which they MIGHT be spinning stuff coming out of focus groups – way, way too close to No10 to be objective.”
In her statement, she admitted having “initial concerns” about the way Public First was brought in, but told the court: “Preparing and conducting a procurement in the middle of the pandemic seemed unrealistic.”
The Good Law Project, the campaign group bringing the judicial review alongside other legal challenges to the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, has argued the work given out to Public First went beyond the scope of emergency contract award.
When the pandemic hit, Public First was already working with the government, and it made alterations to topics for its focus groups to deal with Covid message issues, the court was told.
In a statement to the court, Mr Cummings said he was the driving force behind the agency being brought in to the pandemic response, and robustly defended his decisions.
“Obviously I did not request Public First be brought in because they were my friends. I would never do such a thing”, he said, adding that his past ties to the agency was “a bonus, not a problem”.
“There is no doubt that the Covid pandemic represented a situation of extreme urgency where immediate action was required to save lives.
“Focus groups were a crucial part of the government’s communication strategy. The input was required immediately, there was no time to run a procurement over 6-8 weeks.
“In my opinion it would have been not only foolish but deeply unethical to delay procurement by even 24 hours given the situation we faced in February 2020.
“I am sure that the work done by Public First allowed better and faster decisions and this saved lives and minimised damage.
“I would do the same again without a moment’s hesitation and I believe all those involved who understand mass communication would share this judgement.”
Mr Cummings added: “I was under the impression that provided we were acting genuinely in light of an emergency, that the courts later on would understand that we could not spend weeks on procurement in the normal way when we had hours to act and save lives.”
Public First has already given evidence to Parliament about the government work, insisting it charged less than normal rates and was the “obvious choice” for the contract.
Mr Frayne says he has had no contact with Mr Cummings since 2016, while Ms Wolf only spoke to him once in March last year to field a request for help from a colleague on government communications.
They reject any suggestion Public First conducted party political work.
The judicial review hearing continues.
