Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jen Craft and Rachel Reeves

Tuesday 3rd December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Jen Craft (Thurrock) (Lab)]

14. What steps she is taking to help ensure the sound management of public finances.

[The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Rachel Reeves)]

Sound management of the public finances means spending wisely and not sending money to fraudsters. Today, I have appointed the health expert Tom Hayhoe as our new covid counter-fraud commissioner. As chair of an NHS trust during the pandemic, he saw the urgency of getting personal protective equipment to NHS staff when they needed it. Now he is at his desk in my Department starting the work to investigate the billions of pounds lost to fraud and underperforming contracts, and instead ensuring that that money is where it belongs—in our public services.

[Jen Craft]

My constituents expect the Government to treat taxpayer money with the utmost respect. However, during the pandemic the Conservatives handed out contracts to their friends and donors and failed to prevent fraud, using the crisis as a cover for their greed. Does the Chancellor agree with me that that money belongs to the taxpayer?