Bradford
West MP George Galloway has written to West Yorkshire chief constable Mark
Gilmore asking him to ensure that the police inquiry into Kings Science Academy
investigates the role of Tory vice-chairman Alan Lewis over the lease of land
on which the school stands.
"Lewis'
name is all over the initial report of financial irregularities at Kings but
has been redacted in the published version," said Galloway. "He was a
patron or benefactor of some sort of the academy. His company signed a 20-year
deal to lease the land he owns on which the academy is built - at the quite
extraordinary sum of £296,000 a year. According to a whistleblower who has come
to me and who was involved in this farrago that is many times the going
rent in Bradford. And on top of the £6 million in rent Lewis's company will
inherit the £10 million building; all of this public money, all of this the
very definition of a scandal."
Galloway
added: "There is clearly the question of whether there is a conflict of
interest here. But what the public needs to know is just who at the
school was involved in agreeing this land deal and why a rent way over the
odds was signed-off and paid for by the taxpayer. We already know
that someone at the school forged and submitted invoices in the name of Lewis'
company. The police must include this highly-questionable deal in their
investigation, which is why I have written to the chief constable today."