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Matt Hancock can’t quite help his friend get rich quick

Despite a £40.4m government contract to supply plastic test tubes, Alex Bourne notched up a £709,000 loss last year

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Matt Hancock arrives in Downing Street - Credit: PA

Even with the friendship of the former health secretary Matt Hancock and a £40.4m government contract to supply plastic test tubes during the pandemic, Alex Bourne has yet to strike it rich.

Updated records show Hancock’s former publican notched up a £709,000 loss last year at his plastics manufacturing outfit Hinpack.

No word in the accounts for the firm, which Bourne set up in 2018, on the cause of its loss, though the statements do report a £2.3m spend on plant and machinery and an increase in staff from two to 37.

Bourne and Hancock exchanged email and WhatsApp messages in the run-up to the contract, but both denied impropriety.

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