Oral Answers to Questions

Mary Glindon Excerpts

Wednesday 30th March 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is a doughty campaigner for his constituency. He has made an important point about a planning matter about which I do not think I should really comment, but I am sure that the relevant Ministers will have heard him loud and clear.

[Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)]

Q3.   With the Government losing an estimated £4 billion to fraud in the furlough scheme, surely the Prime Minister should have tackled that fraud—especially when, in his own party in North Tyneside, furlough was claimed for a member of party staff even though he continued to work.

[The Prime Minister]

If the hon. Lady is really saying that we should not have rolled out the furlough scheme at the speed that we did, I think everybody in this country understands that it was a heroic thing. I remember that, two years ago, the Opposition were yammering and clamouring for us to go faster—and we did; we produced a fantastic scheme. And yes, fraudsters will be hunted down: we have put another £100 million into tracking down fraud in this country. Some £23 billion a year was lost under Labour in fraud.