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No procurement, no lawyers, no meetings, no delay please—just send immediately,” wrote Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s then-chief aide, as he dispatched a grant of £530,000 ($740,000) to researchers at the start of the pandemic. Those who feared Brexit would spell protectionism, government bloat and vanity projects have found much to dislike in Mr Johnson’s approach to procurement. While campaigning for election in 2019, he promised a “Buy British” policy for state contracts once Britain was freed from European Union rules. On June 9th a judge declared that a contract for focus groups had been tainted by “apparent bias” and ruled it unlawful. Jolyon Maugham, the campaigning barrister who brought the case, has more under way over what he terms “institutionalised cronyism