Tory peer accused of ‘profiting from small boat crisis’

Exclusive: Lord Willetts is the director of a tech company given £3m of taxpayer cash by the Home Office to to track vessels operating in British waters

A Tory peer has been accused of profiting from the small boats crisis after a company he part-owns secured a lucrative contract tracking the vessels.

David Willetts is the director of a tech company given £3million of taxpayer cash by the Home Office to to track vessels operating in British waters.

Sirius Insight was given a contract to track small boats operating within “UK inland waterways” and “territorial waters” for “365 days per year, 24 hours per day”.

Conservative peer Lord is the director of a tech company given £3m of taxpayer cash by the Home Office

The tech company’s website promises to “detect, verify and track small vessels and small boats at a sufficient distance to allow timely interdiction” by “combining specially-tuned radar with optical and thermal cameras”.

The contract was tendered from the Joint Maritime Security Centre - a UK Border Force-run organisation - which monitors UK waters and coordinates UK Government responses to maritime security threats.

Lord Willetts is a Conservative member of the House of Lords and is the chair of Sirius Insight’s advisory board as well as a founding director of the firm.

Small boat crossings are at a record high (PA Graphics)

As well as the positions on the company’s board, Lord Willetts owns at least £100,000 worth of shares in the company, according to his register of interests.

The links mean he stands to make large sums from the contract, gaining from what critics describe as Tory failures on the small boats crisis. Sirius said Lord Willetts joined the firm in 2017, three years before small boats crossing the Channel became a major public policy issue.

The firm stressed that he joined based on his long-standing experience in and enthusiasm for science, adding that he was “keen to see if he could be of help to a UK AI tech start-up”. A spokesman said it could not comment on the specifics of the contract or any of its clients.

The revelation comes as 2024 has seen a record number of small boat arrivals across the English Channel. More than 13,000 people have now made the crossing this year - a record high for this point.

A Labour source said: “With a record number of people arriving by small boats in the first six months of this year, it leaves a bad taste in the mouth that a Tory peer appears to be profiting from his own government's ongoing failure to tackle that problem.

“Serious questions need to be answered.”

Lord Willetts is the former MP for Havant and held several front bench roles before being given a peerage in 2015 by David Cameron.

Lord Willetts was contacted for comment.

In a statement, Sirius added: “We would like to note that that there is a separate command in UKBF responsible for the small boats operational issues: Sirius neither act for them, nor are they one of our clients.”