‘Covid corruption commissioner’ would seek to recoup lost billions, says Labour

Labour will give new commissioner ‘the mandate to do what it takes to chase those who have ripped off the taxpayer’, Reeves will say. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

A Labour government would create a powerful Covid corruption commissioner to help recoup billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money that has been lost to waste, fraud and flawed contracts during the pandemic, Rachel Reeves is to announce.

The new commissioner would be given the power to bring together public agencies including HMRC, the Serious Fraud Office and the National Crime Agency to pursue at least £2.6bn of “lost” public funds. They would examine contracts line by line and would have to update parliament on their progress in clawing back money.