Shahid Malik, who served as the Labour MP for Dewsbury from 2005 to 2010 and held ministerial roles under Gordon Brown, has been cleared of criminal charges. Malik was one of five individuals accused of involvement in RT Diagnostics, a company that prosecutors claimed was established as a 'cash cow' to profit from the UK government’s test-and-trace infrastructure during the pandemic in March 2021.

The charges brought against Malik included fraudulent trading, causing a public nuisance, and money laundering. Following the legal proceedings, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty on all counts. The case centered on whether the company’s operations were legitimate or designed to deceive the public and the government during the height of the Covid-19 health crisis. While the prosecution characterized the business as a fraudulent scheme intended to exploit the national testing system, the court ultimately did not find sufficient evidence to convict Malik of the alleged offenses.