LAX JOHNSON

& TORIES BLASTED BY COVID TSAR

- BY LIZZY BUCHAN Political Editor and ASHLEY COWBURN

BILLIONS of pounds lost to Covid fraud and error under the Tories is unlikely ever to be recovered, a damning report reveals.

Covid counter-fraud commissioner Tom Hayhoe found £10.9billion was lost to the taxpayer during the pandemic as fraudsters exploited schemes like furlough, bounce-back loans, Eat Out to Help Out and one-off grants.

Some £1.8bn has been clawed back but much of the shortfall is now beyond recovery, Mr Hayhoe warned.

The £10.9bn bill is close to the annual cost of running the justice system. It could also fund free school meals for 2.7 million eligible kids for eight years.

Mr Hayhoe said the then Conservative government led by Boris Johnson, with his chancellor Rishi Sunak heavily promoting his Eat Out to Help Out - paid too little attention to the risk of fraud as it battled to contain the spread of coronavirus.

Schemes were rushed out with huge fraud risks and no early safeguards.

Ministers also failed to recognise the risk that crooks would seek to line their own pockets.

Mr Hayhoe said: "When the spirit of Dunkirk and the Blitz were evoked during Covid-19, the opportunism of the black marketeers like Dad's Army's Private Walker appeared to be forgotten."

WEAK

In a 110-page report, the Covid fraud tsar blamed weak accountability, badquality data and poor contracting as he laid bare the scale of waste.