Rachel Reeves MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, responding to the resignation of the Government’s anti-fraud minister Lord Agnew over ‘lamentable’ Covid loan oversight, said:

“This is a damning indictment of the Chancellor and the Government’s failures on fraud.

“That the Government’s own anti-fraud minister feels he is 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.

“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.

“Coming on top of billions spent on crony contracts and billions more lost in loan fraud schemes, these levels of waste destroy any claim the Conservatives have to careful stewardship of the public finances.

“Labour would treat every pound of taxpayer money with the respect it deserves.”