By an amazing coincidence the security firm that employs former defence secretary John Reid has just landed a big Defence contract:
Former Defence Secretary John Reid faced fierce criticism yesterday as it emerged the world’s largest security firm had won a huge contract from the Ministry of Defence weeks after taking him on as a consultant.
Mr Reid – who ran the MoD until May 2006 before resigning from the Cabinet while Home Secretary in June 2007 – was hired by G4S three months ago for £50,000 a year to offer ‘strategic advice’.
This week, it was awarded a four-year contract to supply private security guards for around 200 MoD and military sites across Britain in a deal thought to be worth tens of millions of pounds.
There was a time serving in government was seen as a duty to the country; now it’s something unpleasant you have to go through to make big bucks in the private sector by exploiting your old contacts.