A senior Amazon executive is being lined up for the role of the government’s space adviser despite warnings from the Cabinet Office over serious conflicts of interests, The Times has learnt.
Peter Marquez, head of space policy at Amazon, has been recommended as an unpaid, temporary adviser to the government. He would take on the role while retaining his position at Amazon.
Cabinet Office officials have raised concerns that there is a “serious conflict of interest” between the government’s £400 million investment in OneWeb, a low-orbit satellite network, and a similar project being developed by Amazon called Project Kuiper. Mike Webb, a special adviser and member of Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak’s joint economics unit, is understood to have recommended the appointment.
Marquez is expected
