The Government has been accused of disregarding the fraud crisis and corruption as the Treasury's anti-fraud minister role remains vacant - four weeks after Lord Agnew dramatically quit his position.
Lord Theodore Agnew resigned from his Cabinet role on January 24 at the Lords despatch box, claiming the Treasury "appears to have no knowledge or little interest in the consequences of fraud to our economy or our society".
He went on to blast the Government, adding a mix of "arrogance, indolence and ignorance freezes the government machine".
Around 325,000 people are likely to have fallen victim to fraud since the post has been vacant, according to Lib Dem analysis.
Sir Ed Davey told the Mirror: "How is the Conservative Government going to tackle the fraud crisis if they can’t even be bothered to appoint a counter-fraud minister?
"Every day brings another 10,000 victims while the Conservatives are asleep at the wheel.
"It’s clear that Conservative ministers could not care less about the millions of victims of fraud each year."
At least 4.6 million people are affected by fraud each year, the Victims Commissioner has highlighted, and around 700,000 will go on to suffer profoundly as a result of their being defrauded.
Angela Rayner, Labour's Deputy leader said: "It's worrying that there is no direct Ministerial responsibility for protecting taxpayers' money, preventing fraud and safeguarding our democracy from undue influence, not least when the Government has written off billions of pounds to fraudsters."
In a letter to Steve Barclay, the PM's chief of staff, Chancellor of Duchy Lancaster and Cabinet off Minister, Ms Rayner added: "The Prime Minister is embroiled in a criminal investigation, and vast amounts have been spent on Covid contracts linked to Conservative politicians, donors and cronies.
"I would expect that the seriousness of this situation, where billions of pounds of taxpayers' money was written off... would lead you to redouble your efforts to tackle fraud and waste."
Mel Stride, chairman of the Commons Treasury committee, has called on the Government to "act faster" on the growing fraud epidemic.
“For too long, pernicious scammers have acted with impunity, ripping off innocent consumers with fraudulent online adverts, impersonation scams and dodgy crypto investments," he told MPs.
“While the government has made some progress in this area, we’re today calling on them to push harder and act faster on the growing fraud epidemic."
Fraud has appeared to be a contentious issue for the Government with the Prime Minister refusing to count fraud into his calculations on crime.
Boris Johnson had been citing misleading figures which claimed crime rates had fallen by 14% from June 2019 to September 2021.
But he did not include fraud or computer misuse and was blasted by Sir David Norgrove, head of the UK Statistics Watchdog.
Replying to a letter about the claims from Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson, Sir David said the Office for National Statistics statement "quite properly includes fraud and computer misuse in total crime".
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng defended the PM, claiming fraud isn't something Brits deal with "in their day to day lives".
"I think fraud is really, really important, but people are talking particularly about burglaries, about personal injury, about physical crimes, and I think in that context we’re seeing lower crimes, I think the prime minister was right," Mr Kwarteng said as he backed the PM's misleading crime claims.
Labour accused him of disrespecting fraud victims across the country who are "scammed by dangerous criminals of their hard-earned life savings".
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary said: “Yet again the Conservatives are downgrading or ignoring criminal fraud – just as Rishi Sunak did when writing off £4.3bn of public money.
“Lord Agnew himself said it best – the government has ‘little interest in the consequences of fraud to our society’.
“This chaotic and incompetent government is a complete disgrace – they cannot be trusted to take seriously our safety and security.”
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has previously denied "ignoring" fraudulently claimed Covid support funds worth billions of pounds.
More than £4 billion of public cash taken by fraudsters from Covid support schemes has been written off by the Treasury.
Kate Osamor asked the PM if he had agreed to the chancellor "writing off £4.3 billion of fraud".
"That's £154 for every household in the country that went directly into the pockets of fraudsters," she added.
In response, Mr Johnson said: "No, of course not. We do not support fraudsters or those who steal from the public purse."
The prime minister's official spokesman later clarified that Mr Johnson meant he did not condone fraud.
Asked by the Mirror when they hope to find a suitable candidate, a Government spokesperson said: “Fraud is totally unacceptable and tackling corruption remains an essential priority. We are taking firm and coordinated action across government to crack down on it.
"This includes investing over £100m in a Taxpayer Protection Taskforce which is expected to recover £1.5bn worth of fraudulent or incorrect payments in one of the largest and quickest responses to a fraud risk ever.
“We are always exploring how we can go further to protect taxpayer’s hard earned money.”
