Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Tory "Donorgate" - John Nash - NHS - Care UK - Sovereign Capital - Hedge Fund

Andrew Lansley & Tory Donor John Nash

John Nashsold the majority of his shares in Care UK to a private equity company, but is retained as a consultant for Care UK. Mr Nash runs several other companies (see last paragraph) and is also the boss of a hedge fund. Hedge funds are speculative funds which make large bets on market movements. They utilise borrowed money to substantially leverage their returns (and losses). During the the global financial crash, hedge "funders" made billions out failing banks and short selling in the UK. People were suffering losing their jobs, livelihoods, having their homes repossessed and their loans called in by banks, and men like John Nash and many other Conservative donors were making millions out of their suffering. People like the  New York billionaire John Paulson , have come under fire for short-selling UK bank shares, like HBOS.


Mr Nash also ran several other firms that provide services to the NHS and stands to gain massively from Tory plans to increase the role of private sector involvement in the NHS.


Care UK is one of the largest independent providers of health and social care services. The company has worked in close proximity with local authorities, strategical heath authorities (SHAs) and primary care trusts (PCTs).  Care UK provides healthcare services which include the running of NHS walk-in centres, GP surgeries, children's specialist care services and treatment centres.


In his speech on the Tory plans for radical reform of the NHS, David Cameron said that they had been preparing for this for years while in opposition. If this is so, then why did he continually tell the British people that the NHS was safe in his hands, and that the Tories had "no plans for top-down reorganisation of the NHS"?  

By his very own admission in an unguarded moment when trying to sell these disastrous reforms,  Cameron let it slip that he lied to the British people and completely and deliberately mislead them. He lied in order to procure votes and that has to be voter fraud. If the court maintains that Labour's Phil Woolas lied and he had to lose his seat, then so should David Cameron. Why is he being allowed to get away with lying like this? This was not a little lie, it was a huge lie to obtain votes under deception.


Exactly how much of the Tory plans to abolish all 10 SHAs and all 152 PCTs and completely dismantle the NHS, did Tory donor John Nash know before the election? 

While Nash was still chairman of Care UK he and his wife donated £21.000 to Health Secretary Andrew Lansley's office to help Lansley fight the general election when he was in opposition.


Over the past five years John Nash and wife Caroline have given £203,500 to the Conservative party in cash donations.


Andrew Lansley has been accused of a direct conflict of interest because Care UK makes 96 per cent of its money from the NHS and operates on a £400 million turnover from the NHS.


In 2008, Parliament's sleaze watchdog Sir John Lyon found that a string of senior Conservatives had accepted money from businesses with a vested interest in their political portfolios.


Nash is a businessman who ALSO regularly invests in private education companies, has praised the Tory reforms for the NHS in official Care UK company documents.


This not only brings Health secretary Andrew Lansley's judgement and honesty into question, it once again brings into question the prime minster David Cameron's judgement and crucially his honesty and integrity and all three have been found sorely lacking.


Another millionaire backer of the Tories, Stuart Wheeler,  who has donated around £3.5 million, said it was inconceivable to think that large party "donees" did not have influence over ministers and policy making, so we can safely assume from that statement that he himself has had influence over ministers and policy making in the past.


The British people are entitled to know about the impact that these massive financial donations to the Tories have had and are still having on Conservative health policy.


David Cameron came to power promising us a "new politics" and "open and transparent government", we have seen little of that, if any at all, in just eight months this Tory led government have turned out to be more corrupt and sleaze ridden than the Labour government were in its entire 13 years.
Especially when this week we learn that Care UK which John Nash is involved with has been awarded a £53m NHS prison health contract.


The contract, awarded by the North-East Offender Health Commissioning Unit, has been awarded to Care UK rather than current NHS providers. Until the contract was put out to tender last year, the primary health care service for 5,000 inmates at eight North- East prisons and young offender establishments was provided by more than 400 NHS staff.

So I guess that is 400 staff facing redundancy, or having their contracts and pay downgraded by Care UK. This company is offering cut price services and conditions.
All part of the Tory government's plan to lower UK living standards and lower the wage bill of their Tory donor friends.

Andrew Lansley is handing the £80bn NHS budget over to the private sector, creating the conditions for wholesale privatisation of the NHS, and private healthcare bosses are lining up and salivating at the prospect of making huge profits from public money.
At the time the Lib Dems slammed the payments made by Nash and his wife to Andrew Lansley  as a “staggering conflict of interest”.


However, now the Liberal Democrats are in bed with the Tories they are now totally ignoring this and helping the Tories vote the decimation of our NHS through parliament.


 How times change!


And look who Michael Gove Education secretary appointed on the  Department for Education Board, as part of a drive to improve governance across Whitehall, they will be given real powers and can even remove the permanent secretary!


  • Anthony Salz – Executive Vice-Chairman of Rothschild (lead non-executive member)


  • Theodore Agnew –  (TORY DONOR) Non-Executive Director of Jubilee Managing Agency Ltd


  • John NashNon-Executive Partner of Sovereign Capital and sponsor of Pimlico Academy (recently rated outstanding by Ofsted)

  • "John Nash's private equity firm  Sovereign Capital owned leading British private schools firm Alpha Plus and special needs school operator SENAD until a few years ago.

    Sovereign has sold these education businesses on, but it uses them to advertise its continuing interest in private schools investment.

    Nash's firm still owns international private schools firm WCL. He is a specialist in privatisation generally, with investments in companies like DC Leisure, which runs swimming pools for local authorities, training firm Paragon and a variety of care home investments.

    His company DC Leisure recently took Bristol Council to court, successfully demanding a payoff after the local authority decided not to go ahead with the firm's PFI deal. "


    i am wondering if the private equity firm "Sovereign Capital" that John Nash owns is the same "private equity company" that he sold the majority of his Care UK shares to?

    3 comments:

    the mambo said...

    Hi there
    I am doing so investigating into DC leisure who have just been handed our new swimming pool in Birmingham.
    I have heard about previous donations to the Conservative Party but obviously could do with some facts. Do you know anything?

    If you do can you let me know at representingthemambo@yahoo.co.uk

    Many thanks

    Anonymous said...

    No - he sold his shares in Care UK to Bridgepoint Capital. And Sovereign Capital is not a hedge fund, it is a private equity fund - they are very different things.

    Gracie Samuels said...

    John Nash is managing director of "The Hedgie" Anonymous! Didn't you know?