Boris Johnson’s government gave taxpayers’ money to a private firm to conduct political polling on key opposition figures – including Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, newly-published emails show.

       Dominic Cummings, former senior No 10 adviser, asked Hanbury Strategy to do polling on the government’s response to the Covid pandemic, before the company was given a ￡580,000 contract.

       Emails released by the Good Law Project show that concerns were raised by senior civil servants that polling done by Hanbury on Sir Keir, London’s Labour mayor Sadiq Khan and others would show political bias in favour of the Conservative Party.

       One civil servant said on email: “Hanbury measure attitude towards political figures, which they shouldn’t do using government money, but they have been asked to and it’s a battle that I think is hard to fight’.”

       But Mr Cummings told the most senior civil servant responsible for Covid contracts to sign off on it, and said that if “anybody in CABOFF [the Cabinet Office] whines tell them I ordered it from PM”.

       The Good Law Project has raised a legal challenge over the government’s awarding of a Covid contract to Hanbury to conduct opinion polls on the public’s view of the response to the crisis.

       Mr Cummings personally called Hanbury founder Paul Stephenson, a former colleague on the Vote Leave campaign, and asked him if his company would do some work to assess the popularity of the government’s handling of the pandemic.

       Labour said the newly-released emails showed “all the hallmarks of a racket” and claimed taxpayers’ money had been “abused”.

       Angela Rayner MP, Labour’s deputy leader, said: “This has the hallmarks of a racket – not a government acting in the national interest during a pandemic.

       “Taxpayers’ money that has been abused in this way should be paid back by the Conservative Party. Taxpayers’ money is not the personal cashpoint of Conservative ministers to dish out to their mates.”

       Ms Rayner “We need a fully independent inquiry into the government contracts that have been handed out over private email and WhatsApp so we can get to the bottom of this scandal.”

       Evidence unearthed during the latest court hearing also showed that former No 10 adviser Ben Warner had directed civil servants to his private WhatsApp, rather than his official email address. “Often it’s easier to catch me over WhatsApp than email,” he wrote.