Questions raised over Iain Duncan Smith’s £25,000 job at hand sanitiser firm

Labour accuses former Tory leader of ‘brazen conflict of interest’

Iain Duncan Smith MP speaks at a press conference for the launch of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Magnitsky Sanctions in London, Britain, 20 October 2021. (EPA)

Senior Tory MP Iain Duncan Smith receives £25,000 a year as an advisor to a hand sanitiser company that stood to benefit from recommendations made by a government task force he chaired.

The Task Force on Innovation, Growth, and Regulatory Reform recommended in May this year that alcohol-free hand sanitiser be given the green light for use in the UK, with no reference to the chair’s relationship with Byotrol.

In a report proposing a raft of changes to post-Brexit regulation in the UK, the task force called for an “urgent review on guidance on hand sanitisers so that tested, effective non-alcohol based sanitisers can be used”.

Byotrol, which still employs Mr Duncan Smith, supplies the NHS with 92 per cent of its alcohol-free sanitiser. The Conservative MP for Chingford and Woodford Green was a director at the company from June 2009 to May 2010.

His register of interests states he is retained as an adviser to the board of Byotrol, a position for which he is paid £25,000 per year “in return for approximately 12 hours per month.”

“Hand hygiene (washing and sanitising) has been a crucial response to the coronavirus pandemic,” the task force report adds.

“Current guidelines in the UK on non-alcohol based hand sanitisers are unclear. As a result, there is confusion in industry and among consumers as to what products are safe and effective to use, and we may be unnecessarily limiting the range of sanitising products available.

“Government should review current guidance to place alcohol and non-alcohol-based on a level paying field.”

The month after the report was published, Byotrol issued a press release welcoming the task force’s recommendations on alcohol-free sanitiser, describing it as a “sea change” that would “clear confusion amongst healthcare professionals, businesses, and consumers”.

Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, accused Mr Duncan Smith of a “brazen conflict of interest”.

“The prime minister needs to explain why he think it is justified for one of his MPs to be paid by a company that stands to benefit from a recommendation of a taskforce chaired by that same MP,” she told The Guardian.

“This is exactly the kind of brazen conflict of interest that proves that the Conservatives think it is one rule for them and another for the rest of us.”

She continued: “Did this MP declare an interest when these matters were discussed and reported on by the task force? Why is the prime minister failing to act over these glaring conflicts of interest?”

The Independent has approached both Byotrol and Sir Iain Duncan Smith for comment.