CEO is close friend of Jeremy Hunt

A charity founded by chancellor Jeremy Hunt paid two thirds of its income to its chief executive.  

Adam Smith, a close friend of Hunt, was the only employee of healthcare charity Patient Watch and received more than £110,000 in wages.

Smith was a former adviser to Hunt in 2012, when Hunt was culture secretary, but resigned after the Leveson inquiry revealed he had exchanged messages with a lobbyist for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

Hunt personally contributes to the charity but it also asks for donations on its website.

The company was seeking permission for a takeover of BSkyB (now Sky) at the time, with Hunt in a quasi-judicial role.

Smith’s £110,000-£120,000 salary, represents more than two-thirds of the charity’s annual income of £164,400 for the financial year ending January 2022.

Its annual accounts report that £106,000 of its income came from donations and legacies, and a further £58,400 from other trading activities.

The charity’s research has yet to be published due to the pandemic, its reports for the last two years say.

As a result it has been sharing information on public health through a newsletter which has just over 1,000 subscribers and through blogs on its website.