“The cost to the taxpayer of Covid fraud is estimated at £7.2bn. Every cheque signed by Rishi Sunak...We'll appoint a Covid corruption commissioner, a hit squad of investigators...to take the fraudsters to court...We want that money back."
Labour’s Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves has vowed to appoint a Covid corruption commissioner if the party wins the next election, to recoup billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money lost to waste, fraud and flawed contracts during the pandemic.
She made the announcement during her speech to Labour Party conference today, where she made war on waste a crucial part of her economic plans, pledging cut consultancy spend in government by half and appointing a Covid Corruption Commissioner to claw back money from those who ‘ripped off the taxpayer’.
She said: “The cost to the taxpayer of Covid fraud is estimated at £7.2bn. Every cheque signed by Rishi Sunak…We’ll appoint a Covid corruption commissioner, a hit squad of investigators…to take the fraudsters to court…We want that money back.”
Reeves told conference: “That money belongs in our NHS, it belongs in our schools, it belongs in our police and conference – we want that money back”.
She focused on the theme of economic security after Tory policies caused economic chaos, saying “change will only be achieved through an iron [fiscal] discipline.”
Reeves took aim at the Tories saying that ‘never again will we allow a repeat of the devastation that Liz Truss and the Tory Party have inflicted on family finances’. She told conference at the beginning of the speech: “We will lift our living standards, make work pay, rebuild our public services, invest in growth industries in every corner of our country and together we will get our future back.”
The Shadow Chancellor also unveiled plans to speed up infrastructure projects to “drive growth and investment into the UK”.
She said Labour would hire 300 new planners across the public sector and re-write planning guidance to speed up the process. Planning applications would be fast-tracked for battery factories, laboratories and 5G infrastructure.
Reeves said a Labour government would commission an independent expert inquiry into the HS2 high-speed rail project to learn lessons for the future, adding that many more major spending projects are “running over time and over budget”.
Other key policies announced by Reeves included increasing stamp duty for overseas buyers buying property, which would be used to fund housebuilding as well as slashing the use of private jets by ministers.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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