Machines could be marketed as ‘used in UK hospitals’ after James Dyson spoke to PM, inquiry hears

A minister warned a senior official that ventilators might need to be bought from Sir James Dyson “so that he [could] then market [them] internationally” as “being used in UK hospitals” after the businessman spoke to Boris Johnson, the Covid inquiry has heard.

The message from Lord Agnew, a Tory Treasury minister, to the government’s chief commercial officer, Gareth Rhys Williams, emerged as the public inquiry into the pandemic started a four-week examination of procurement.