Owen Paterson personally lobbied Matt Hancock on behalf of a Covid testing firm later handed £60m worth contracts, newly published text messages suggest.
The private messages, which emerged after a standards probe into Mr Paterson's lobbying for Randox, also show the MP asked Mr Hancock to "kill" news stories making claims about his involvement with the deal.
The Tory former MP, who was on test firm Randox's payroll as an consultant, was forced to quit last year over the lobbying scandal.
