Lord Agnew: Conservative Party Minister resigns over government handling of fraudulent Covid business loan

[ad_1]

Lord Theodore Agnew of Ulton told the House of Lords that he was unhappy with the work between the Department of Business and the Treasury.

“Given that I am the anti-fraud minister, it would be somewhat dishonest to continue in this role if I am unable to do it properly,” he told colleagues on Monday.

Lord Agnew, who has served as Minister for Efficiency and Transformation in the Treasury and Cabinet Office since February 2020, added: “It is for this reason that I have unfortunately decided to submit my resignation from my position as Minister in the Treasury and Cabinet Office with immediate effect.”

In response to an urgent question from Labor about the Covid loan fraud, he said he was unable to defend the government’s record.

Read more

During the pandemic, the government granted more than £47 billion to small businesses under the BBLS scheme.

More than a million companies have been given cash from the program, which was meant to rescue small businesses at risk during the pandemic.

But Lord Agnew claimed that the government, which guarantees full loans at the BBLS, has so far repaid the banks nearly £1 billion for loans they have defaulted on.

He added that more than a quarter of this money was valued for fraudulent loans.

Lord Agnew told his colleagues that the “schoolboy’s mistakes” had been made when he explained why he had resigned from the government.

He said: “The oversight by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the UK Business Bank over the BBLS Lenders Committee has been nothing short of distressing.

They have been helped by the Treasury, who seem to have little knowledge or interest in the consequences of fraud on our economy or society.

He told the House of Lords that BEIS had “two anti-fraud officers” at the start of the pandemic who would not “deal constructively” with the Cabinet Office’s anti-fraud team.

He added, “Student mistakes happened, for example allowing more than a thousand companies to get refunded loans that were not even trading when Covid hit.”

After completing his speech, the Chancellor of the Exchequer came out of the Lords Chamber to applaud his colleagues.

After Lord Agnew’s resignation, No. 10 insisted that the government was clear on the fraud “unacceptable”.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesperson said: “We are grateful to Lord Agnew for the significant contribution he has made to the government.

“On the broader issues he has raised, we have rapidly introduced our unprecedented Covid support schemes to protect jobs and livelihoods, helping millions of people across the UK, including nearly 12 million in the Leave Scheme alone.

“We have always been clear that fraud is unacceptable and taking action against those abusing the system, with 150,000 ineligible claims blocked, £500m recoveries last year and HMRC’s £1bn tax protection task force expected to be reimbursed. Additional taxpayer “money.”

The resignation comes ahead of the release of a report by Sue Gray on the government’s “Party Gateway” scandal.

Ms Gray has been tasked with investigating a series of allegations about parties and gatherings that took place in 2020 and 2021 while a variety of Covid restrictions were in place.

Its report is expected later this week, and its findings could determine Johnson’s future as prime minister.

.

[ad_2]