Yesterday, Labour MP Karl Turner went tonto over what he described as the Government’s mishandling of PPE contracts. Speaking in the Commons, Turner demanded an apology from the frontbench saying that a local supplier, Arco, had been excluded from consideration because “they weren’t on the VIP list“. They “didn’t get a sniff”, according to a fuming Turner…

Here’s what Arco say on their own website about their involvement in procurement:

“Our knowledge was called on extensively as we joined the national effort to reduce the spread and shield those who were most at risk from the virus. Over 291 NHS Trusts placed orders directly with Arco, with an average of 108 orders per day.

We sourced and distributed over 140 million face masks, 18 million gloves, over 50,000 coveralls and 500,000 hygiene products to the NHS, ambulance services, local authorities, and other public health bodies and critical industries.

Some of our biggest requests were £20 million worth of powered respirators and filters for the new NHS Nightingale hospitals, as well as orders for thousands of FFP2 and FFP3 respirators masks.”

They distributed over 163 million items to the NHS and other public bodies during the pandemic. Something more than “a sniff” in any world outside Karl Turner’s and probably quite useful to very many thousands of patients and staff…