‘Covid corruption commissioner’ would seek to recoup lost billions, says Labour

Exclusive: Rachel Reeves announces plans for powerful watchdog to recover taxpayer cash lost to waste and fraud

A Labour government would create a powerful Covid corruption commissioner to help recoup billions of pounds of taxpayers' money that has been lost to waste, fraud and flawed contracts during the pandemic, Rachel Reeves is to announce.

The new commissioner would be given the power to bring together public agencies including HMRC, the Serious Fraud Office and the National Crime Agency to pursue at least 2.6bn of lost" public funds. They would examine contracts line by line and would have to update parliament on their progress in clawing back money.