Stroud company to sue the Good Law Project over PPE claims

A company that supplied face shields to the NHS during the pandemic is to sue a campaign group it accuses of damaging its reputation.

Platform 14 (P14), based in Stroud, Gloucestershire, was awarded a £120m contract to supply high-quality face shields.

The Good Law Project said P14 benefitted from political connections and supplied substandard equipment.

The company denies this and is now taking legal action.

Ben Fear, chief executive officer of P14, said he was "annoyed and frustrated" by the latest Good Law Project article, published this week. P14 has always denied being given special treatment.

The Good Law Project has been critical of the way several companies with links to Conservative MPs received major government contracts during the pandemic.

At the start of lockdown there was an urgent shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) and public procurement rules were relaxed.

Emails released via a Freedom of Information request showed that Stroud MP Siobhan Baillie forwarded details of a Stroud company to the Cabinet Office.

The name of the company was redacted in the documents, but the Good Law Project has suggested it was P14.

Mrs Baillie said the company she recommended for a contract was actually called Wear and Care Ltd, which did not get a contract.

She added: "Even after months of digging and a Freedom of Information request - there is nothing to connect me to P14.

"This is pretty desperate stuff - and myself and my staff have now been diverted from our jobs helping constituents so we can deal with this."

In a blog published on 8 November, the Good Law Project mentioned P14 alongside allegations that Mrs Baillie "channelled" them down "the VIP lane".

The company said in response to the blog, it would be taking legal action.

Mr Fear said: "In the article they [the Good Law Project] named Platform 14 and the founder of the company as being given preferential treatment and also supplying poor-quality goods to the NHS during the Covid crisis.

"All of that is completely unchecked and libellous and unfortunately because of this continued behaviour by the Good Law Project I've been forced to instruct my solicitors to begin proceedings against them."

In a statement, the Good Law Project said: "People who don't like what we do threaten to sue us all the time. We stand by every word in that blog."

The BBC has asked for evidence The Good Law Project has of any wrongdoing by Platform 14, but has not had a response.

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