Tories ‘could have saved £420 per household with Covid cash lost to fraud’

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The Tories could have saved each UK household nearly £420 with the money they lost to fraud through “flaws” in their Covid business support schemes, Labour has claimed. Labour based its analysis on research commissioned from the House of Commons Library in March 2022, which showed a central estimate of £11.8 billion lost to fraud and error through five Government business support schemes. Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader and shadow secretary of state for the future of work, said: “While families are struggling to make their pay cheques last the month, billions of pounds of hard-earned taxpayers’ money has been lost in fraud and written off by the Chancellor, showing how little he and his Government respect UK taxpayers. “We have put forward a sensible, costed, practical plan that would give people real help right now – the Government must now hold an emergency budget to enact these plans and make a material difference to the millions of pensioners and working people feeling the crunch from the crisis.” A Government spokesman defended its response to the Covid outbreak and said action was being taken to tackle fraud.