Matt Hancock's pub landlord calls James O'Brien to 'set the record straight' | LBC 

“I was walkin dahn the street, just mindin me own business like, and suddenly realised I had £39.75m spare manufacturing capacity what I hadn’t been using. You doughnut, I fort, why ain’t you usin that to help your fellow yuman beans!”

Probably best to just keep quiet and wait till everyone forgets about it. Now we all think far worse of you!

I listened to this live and have replayed it a few times since. The guy sounds way too rehearsed to be genuine about this. He has a brass neck trying to face up to James O'Brien...and I thought he sounded quite aggressive, belligerent and defensive at times. I can only hope the guy gets his comeuppance in due course.

To paraphrase… ‘Why were you working as a sub-contractor” “Because the guidelines are clear that I can’t get the contract” So even in that he admits playing the system to get around the rules.

Genius to let him keep digging and digging and digging his own grave. Stunned that he actually said he made no profit from a £40m contract live on air too.

£40 million but no profit? 😂😂😂 £250K previous turnover and then £40 million contract instead of established companies that could do it a lot better and more experience. Government spontaneously selected his company to get the job done? 😂😂😂

The National Audit Office wrote the Report . Not the Labour Party

I can picture him getting the nod and being asked to follow it up with an email to make it look legit. Grab him by the ankles and shake till the WhatsApp messages hit the floor.

So he got Hancock's number from his next door neighbour. Really? Must ask mine later if they've got Boris Johnson's.....I need to ring him, as my Christmas Party invitation hasn't arrived yet.

"I got the phone number of the decision taker who used to frequent my pub from a neighbour .... and there is no way there was any corruption" How we managed to get on the VIP channel for business must be a coincidence hahaha. So nothing to see here says the public school boy ringing in.

A company that makes plastic cutlery & pizza boxes gets a £40m contract but companies that specialize in PPE manufacture don't even get an email response? Nothing to see here people, move on. The brazen open corruption/gross incompetence makes me weep.

He may as well have been trying to convince us that his pub is one of the 40 new hospitals.

The conservative government giving family, friends and cronies with no background whatsoever in PPE production, massive multi million pounds contracts, yet proper PPE production companies didn't get contracts. Absolutely disgusting.

This Stinks, 250,000 to 40,000,000 ??!! Investigate and get the ppl's money back.

This is as painful as Prince Andrew's plea of innocence.

This guy is an absolute saint. He didn’t earn a penny and just wanted to help. He also has a bridge to sell you......

Its funny he thought going on public radio would "set the record straight" and infact he has just admited on record he was doing dodgey stuff helping dodgier politicians rip the public purse and they all benefited. Oh wow... his lawyer will be having a stern talk with him 🤣👌

Even fiddled his tax as is obvious from the blatant saying he made no profit

Check your change when you go into his pub

It was going OK until Alex got over-defencive and now it makes him look really suspect

His total turnover before the contract was £250,000 making pizza boxes and he got a contract for £40,000,000 to make medical grade components as if by magic ? Any genuine buyer would reject this company as a supplier since they had neither the technical relevance or economic capacity to perform a contract of £40m in such a short period of time.

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." -- Napoleon

I find it extremely difficult to believe someone who mixes with Hancock , period

“I just want to clear this up” he says making himself sound even more guilty 🙄

I struggle to understand why these people come on the James O'Brien programme and think they're going to flannel him and sidestep the questions.

£40mil contract an £0 profit? It has to be said that a decent accountant can make any amount of money disappear from a firms accounts. £250k to £40M in a year? That’s a pretty significant increase in year on year growth.

A man with a £250k turnover suddenly gets a £40 million contract ?

What amazes me is how this guy can actually negotiate anything...... and all this BS about him doing things for the country just does not wash... .

The pub landlord seems to find it demeaning to be called a pub landlord, very strange since he is such an honest upstanding shall we say human being.

I'm sure alex will be 100% happy to release all whatsapp messages and emails to prove his point

He answered a call to action at a time of need, and in the process he managed to : - get into an industry where his company had no experience - get past existing companies in that industry to secure a government contract, and - increase his annual turnover by 160 times the previous year And he did all of this without taking a single penny in profit. We are talking about the lovechild of Jesus and Elon Musk, right? Give this guy a medal! 🤣

Something tells me he’s keeping the emails he sent to Matty’s private gmail account locked in a safe.

And yet companies that had been supplying and dealing in the production of PPE for many years to the NHS lost their contracts to then find out that companies that had never had a hand in the production of PPE were given those contracts.....no nothing to see here

Just consider what he's saying here. He had a business which turned over £250k which accepted a £40m contract making products he had no experience of making. It seems to me the chance of him getting some elements of production wrong was enormous. As his existing company was small his ability to cover the costs of any mistakes would have been limited.... yet he took on this risk for no reward!? Whatever you think of this explanation someone in government / procurement needs to explain why they thought it appropriate to award a £40m contract to a small company with zero track record for making PPE.

When Matt is eventually put before a Judge, this man's evidence will be key to convicting him.

So he expects us to believe that he got a £40M contract, didnt make a single penny in profit, doesnt expect any favouritism in the future and did all of it out of a sense of national patriotism. Well i for one am convinced.... totaly

this reminds me of every time some woman is killed by her loved one and that guy instead of just shutting up and playing the grieving husband and isolating himself, holds a press conference to speak of his virtues, narcissism and classic projection here

250k turnover to £40m turnover, hat off James cracking interview. It’s about as ridiculous as awarding a ferry contract to a company with no ferries or history.

a richard nixon "im not a crook" moment

This guy is about as convincing as Prince Andrew saying he doesn't sweat.

40 million 0 profit, make him chancellor.

He made no profit on a £40,000,000 government contract, and he reckons he's a businessman. Such incompetence should qualify him to be in THIS government.

I was expecting the guy to claim he was in Pizza Express in Woking at the exact moment the contract was awarded

Seems legit. If Hancock says it's all above board and this guy says he took no profit, let's let it go eh? Nah, let's nail them to the wall.

This prat is funnier than the real pub landlord . Just a little bit of an idea why his company was awarded a £ 40 million contract . Last financial year sales £ 250 , 000 .

Surely they should also be asking why Matt Hancock took his friend's pub's photo down if he had nothing to hide, when the story first broke....

When someone with a clear private school upbringing says i was doing it for queen and country, you absolutely know its the old boys club network that got him the contract, not a lottery pick! he just hates being found out and targeted for that connection over substance of someone else who didn't get it!

well that backfired... journalism at its best :)

He was just doing his best for Queen and country! 😂😂

They hide it because it makes them look corrupt, which is ironic if they weren't being corrupt on this one occasion, ergo, they knew they were being so corrupt they can't even cover up the right thing.

I've never heard a pub landlord speak with an accent like that

He's was obviously sat down and was coached thoroughly on what to say, but he still doesn't even come close to setting the record straight

40 million plus contract and made no profit does he take us for fools

Seems a bit mad that someone who made pizza boxes could get the number of the health secretary from 'a neighbour' and get in direct contact. If that isn't VIP lane, what is? Also, what does I mean in the VIP lane? What was the measurement of 'important'? Capable? Chum? What?

Imagine walking into Dragons Den with this guy. Turnover last year? - "£40 million." Profit on that? - "Nothing. £00.00" "I'm out!"

This guy is funny. So he called Hancock after getting his number from the next door neighbor. That bit was hilarious.

Wait matey made 250k the previous year and he was awarded 40m contract and made zero profit hahahahahahaha

Poor guy said he would do the work for free and they made him make 40 million pounds profit. Bet he cries into his Champagne...

He does not seem to see that many would see this as dodgy. The real question is why did the government not act on their 2015 report (which we payed for)? If they did not want to buy PPE in advance of a pandemic they could at least have put a list of approved suppliers together. Maybe even some specifications?

So this guy made no profit on a 40 million government contract?? Really

He's claimed he's made no profit on £40m contract. So basically no tax to pay either. This country is getting sickening to live in.

JOB at his best. Quality broadcaster.

Easily the most effective and direct radio presenter in the UK, just love how he dissects the information and exposes the story.

He doesn't sound bright enough to be running any kind of company even one that makes boxes for pizzas. How exactly did he think he was going to provide medical protective equipment to save the lives of health workers during a deadly pandemic. Is he delusional?

What we’ve got here is someone who at the first attempt at scrutiny by a guardian reporter immediately engages the foremost Anti-Information giving Law Firm in the country to deal with the Awkward Parts coming his way , now he’s voluntarily talking to a radio presenter/reporter avoided by every Government Minister for more than twelve months,, strange ?

Worm 🐛 on a hook! I remember suppliers on record as saying they never got a reply to offers off PPE In one case it was respirators being offered which were eventually sold abroad despite hospitals crying out for them!

People like this guy have "pub landlord" as a hobby, a nice way to feel important inside a gated community, and they only ever leave London if it's on an aeroplane.. It's not the same as being an actual real pub landlord in the rest of England.

The Tories have always been bent and they always will be.

Oh dear. This will be evidence when he’s looking at a 20 stretch

In other words, they used a loophole in order to sidestep government procurement rules.

The whole thing has been a scam.

ALL SOUNDS WELL CROOKED TO ME LOCK THE LOT OF THEM UP

In his own words he was a sub contractor to avoid rules that are there to protect from rogue contractors that haven't met vetting criteria. That alone sounds corrupt.

Zero profit! What a guy.

Zero profit. Well, for tax purposes . . .

NHS: Anybody got any leads on PPE manufacturers? Hancock: I know a guy who makes pizza boxes NHS: Say no more here's £40m

I fixed my daughter’s earring yesterday and today i am a master jeweller who’s diamond tiaras command millions from the likes of the Kardashians. YAYY ME!

clearly a put up job here. His government handler has clearly told him to phone in to try and make everything look inocent. There is a word in English that describes what this was, and that word is called corruption.

"I'm very aware of what I'm doing" Why on Earth would he phone in then???

James O’Brien is my hero!

Didn't make any money on that...OK.... Who did then?

Zero profit? It’ll be interesting to look into Companies House next year to see what “Zero” really looks like.

This guy actually admitted to being corrupt in less than 30 seconds after opening his mouth. "The reason why I had to be a subcontractor is because I wasn't on the NHS framework". And why does the NHS, and all other public entities have said framework? Well my friend its to keep quality high and to stop possible corruption, such as civil servants giving insider advantages to specific contractors, family members, etc. and channeling public funds into the pockets of their mates. Companies must be vetted _before_ being authorised as a contractor, the process includes signed declarations which state if they have any contacts with government employees, who they are, etc. The buffoon even said "that [referring to the NHS framework] was the problem". YES you clown, that's what _anyone_ trying to use their government contacts, illegally, in order to channel public money into their business, would say. The anti-corruption measures, that exist to protect OUR public funds, would be described as "a problem" no less. There are ways to fast-track the process, specifically for suppliers with special products and services, that can't be sourced elsewhere. So why did they not go through that procedure? Obviously because then he would have to actually _name_ Matt Hancock in the process. That would _automaticlly_ take Hancock "out of the loop". Ie. No -££££- for Matt. That's WHY the clowns company was removed in the redaction. As plain as the nose on your face for anyone who has tendered for _ANY_ public contract in the last 40 years.

He wants to work for free. He didn't make a profit, he didn't want to. He must think we're fools. For a start, his business was on it's knees because of COVID, so I imagine being able to pivot kept his business alive, kept him earning a living. I bet he paid himself a decent whack as a salary, I bet he invested in expensive infrastructure like machinery that means he's now capable of delivering more work in the future, paid for by his cut in the 40+ million contact. Accountants can make a business break-even and not make a profit because it means you don't pay tax. So, I'm quietly confident that it might be true on paper but strategies were used to extract value from the contract in other non-direct ways

Pub landlord/Pizza box maker who made the equivalent of 160 years worth of income within 12 months, thinks there is no issue. Even after he says, he made no profit. When he said "I know what i'm doing" code for "I know how to avoid tax". Who else picked up when he said referring to the equipment he made "all our own design". I suspect he is either being sued or knows it's coming down the pipe, for stealing others patents.

Once again my hat goes off to you James 👍👍

Brave, but ultimately a pointless attempt to whitewash very dubious circumstances. Why buy from firms with no experience in what's a very specialist area, with procurement being managed by politicians and civil servants, ill-equipped to quality-control what's being offered. Not plausible, even in an emergency, since below standard PPE is useless and hinders the acquisition of quality PPE!

Nick Ferrari should be paying £100 per month for every pound he is overweight.

Is he still a landlord after his Government windfall.

James, you're a harsh man, but jeez I enjoy watching them squirm... ;-)

I wonder how much of a kickback Hancock got out of this...

Remember the shipping company that didn't have any ships, and the millions now paid each month to store unusable ppe incompetently or corruptly bought . 40 million out of billions wasted or pocketed?

So when his mate matty needs lots of PPE, his pub landlord is top of the list. I must remember if I ever need the emergency services, I should call Pizza Hut.

James 's face is an absolute picture of incredulity .

the rancid tories just dont get it do they..

James O’Brien I like your show but the constant interruptions is frustrating to listen to.

This the same person who somehow managed to purchased a £1.3 million six bed manor after receiving said contract?

He sounds as vile as Matt hancock. They can't help themselves from insulting people's intelligence. And why do they always claim to be the victims? Vile creatures 🤬.

"Could I borrow your WhatsApp access?" "Yah you could" beyond parody

😂😂😂 £40 Million contract and no profit. Yet 12 months earlier turned over £250,000 😂😂😂😂😂. What a load of 🐮💩!!!