Labour has conceded its much-hyped Covid corruption commissioner may not recover any of the money lost to fraud and wasted on useless PPE during the pandemic.
In an embarrassing admission, the party’s manifesto suggested the commissioner, billed as someone who would “chase down those who have ripped off the taxpayer”, may recoup no cash at all.
Despite initially promising the corruption tsar would recoup billions lost to fraudsters taking advantage of Covid, no new funds appear in the Labour manifesto’s financial forecasts. It suggests party thinks any corruption tsar may fail to chase down any of the lost cash.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves channelled Margaret Thatcher when she announced the initiative at Labour conference last October, declaring “we want our money back”.
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Baroness Thatcher won her four-year battle to reduce Britain’s payments to the European Economic Community in 1980 after famously declaring “I want my money back”.
And Ms Reeves highlighted that the cost to the taxpayer of Covid fraud is estimated at £7.2bn, with only 2 per cent of all fraudulent Covid grants having been recovered.
The manifesto, launched in Manchester by Sir Keir on Thursday, still committed to appointing a fixed-term Covid corruption commissioner.
It promises to “use every means possible to recoup public money lost in pandemic related fraud and from contracts which have not delivered”.
But, in the document’s costing section, there is no estimate of how much money such a commissioner might recoup.
It is a stark contrast to the approximately £5bn Labour has said it can raise for investment in Britain’s ailing public services by clamping down on tax avoidance.
The omission of any forecast funds to be raised by the Covid fraud commissioner appears to be a tacit admission the party cannot be sure the figure will have any impact at all.
Critics said the move appeared to be virtue signalling by the Labour Party. Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said Labour’s claims the fraud commissioner were “b******s”.
The long-serving MP said the reason Labour will have omitted a figure of the expected funds raised is because “HMRC is already bending over backwards to recover any lost funds and any gains are not achievable”.
“It is an attempt to point the finger at the Tories and say ‘you haven’t been doing enough’ but when you comb through it you realise there is nothing there... it is a complete smoke screen, and a flip flop” he told The Independent.
And veteran MP and Conservative candidate Sir John Hayes told The Independent: “This looks very much like yet another uncosted Labour policy.
“Worst still, given Covid's tragic consequences, it is plainly wrong to promise a commissioner with no resorces and so no scope or substance.”
Unveiling her plans for the commissioner, Ms Reeves told Labour activists: “For too long Tory governments have allowed money to be wasted and taxpayers defrauded.
“So Labour will wage a war against fraud, waste and inefficiency.
“So I can announce today that we will appoint a Covid corruption commissioner.
“Supported by a hit squad of investigators, equipped with the powers they need and the mandate to do whatever it takes to chase down those who have ripped off the taxpayer, to take the fraudsters to court and to get back every penny of taxpayers’ money that they can.
“Because that money belongs in our NHS, it belongs in our schools, it belongs in our police.
“And let me tell you, we want our money back.”
Labour was asked to comment.
