Update: Operation Moonshot

On 24th September, lawyers acting on behalf of Good Law Project, EveryDoctor, and Dale Vince’s Ecotricity wrote to Government with two simple requests. We asked whether they had already awarded contracts in connection with the secretive £100bn+ ‘Operation Moonshot’ and asked them to agree not to enter into any new contracts until we had had the opportunity to consider the supposed lawfulness of their ‘Moonshot’. 

Government’s reply, which you can read here, is utterly inadequate. In the words of our legal team, ‘these are carefully chosen words that leave the current position completely unclear’. They failed to answer meaningfully whether they have entered into any contracts in regard to ‘Operation Moonshot’, and they have not agreed not to enter into any new contracts.

We are left to glean what we can from leaks to the press and (perhaps unintentionally) illuminating comments on private webinars like Dido Harding’s to the CBI, who disclosed Government’s secret plan to charge the public for Operation Moonshot tests. The implication that vast sums of public money are being used to advance commercial interests and establish a two-tier NHS, with better healthcare for those who can pay, raises further serious concerns about the lawfulness of the Moonshot project. Add into the mix suggestions of nepotism and significant conflicts of interest – with Boris Johnson’s brother, Max, appointed as an adviser to a company shooting for Moonshot riches – and you can understand why legal action is so critical.

Government appears intent on keeping us in the dark about their £100 billion shot in the dark.  But we are not letting up. Our legal team continues to push for more comprehensive answers from Government. If they are not forthcoming, we will sue. If you are in a position to support the legal challenge, you can do so here.

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