Labour hits out at government handling of covid loan fraud
The Labour Party has attacked the Conservatives for reportedly not allowing the National Crime Agency (NCA) to investigate Covid loan fraud.
According to The Telegraph, the Treasury turned down help from the NCA to investigate fraudulent use of the state-backed lending schemes, which were delivered quickly to help businesses struggling during the pandemic.
Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves said Chancellor Rishi Suank’s decision to turn down NCA support was “extraordinary”.
Later today (Tuesday 1 February), the Labour party is expected to use an opposition day debate in the House of Commons to urge the government to support an investigation.
Read more: How exposed are the Covid loan schemes to fraud ?
“Ignoring advice about fraud is bad enough, but for the chancellor to turn down support from the National Crime Agency is extraordinary,” said Reeves on Twitter.
“The chancellor must not allow embarrassment or ambition get in the way of retrieving public money lost to criminals.
“If you’re trusted with taxpayers’ money, you should treat it with respect. Wasting billions on crony contracts that don’t deliver, and losing billions more to fraudsters and criminals shows the opposite.”
Read more: Lenders lose £240m in Covid loan guarantees
Last week, Conservative Minister Lord Agnew resigned over Covid loan fraud, after it was revealed that the government had written off £4.3bn in fraudulently claimed Covid benefits.
At the time Reeves said the fact the government’s own anti-fraud minister felt unable to defend the government’s record on billions of pounds of taxpayer cash gifted to criminals tells you “all you need to know about the incompetence of this government”.
She added that it should be a “source of enduring shame” to the chancellor that he has so “casually written off £4.3bn of taxpayers’ money that is now in the hand of criminals and gangs”.
However, Conservative Lord Viscount Younger of Leckiehas defended the government’s handling of fraudulent state-backed loans, saying it introduced the support quickly to aid businesses.
The Treasury has previously said that last year it recovered nearly £2.2bn in potential fraud from the bounce back loan scheme.