• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Meet the Team
  • Contact us
  • Guest Content
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinion

If Sunak hadn’t lost billions to fraudsters Govt could have released Zaghari-Ratcliffe 10 times

'The failure of Government to tackle fraud felt so egregious, and the need for remedy so urgent, that I felt my only option left was to smash some crockery to get people to take notice."

Joe Mellor by Joe Mellor
2022-01-29 15:00
in Opinion
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

A minister who quit the Government over the “schoolboy” handling of fraudulent Covid-19 business loans said of his resignation during a speech at the despatch box in the House of Lords: “I didn’t want to blow my top, but I was very angry.”

Lord Agnew of Oulton, who was the Tories’ anti-fraud minister, says he felt he had to resign from his Cabinet Office and Treasury posts because of the Government’s “egregious” failure in its handling of bounce-back loans.

He told The Times that ahead of his speech, “I was nearly sick going into the chamber”.

“This isn’t natural for me, I took no pleasure from it but the failure of Government to tackle fraud felt so egregious, and the need for remedy so urgent, that I felt my only option left was to smash some crockery to get people to take notice,” Lord Agnew added.

“In life one should try to stay inside the tent to win the arguments but ultimately there comes a breaking point.”

Parliament has heard the Treasury expects to write off about £4.3 billion of Covid loans, with money having gone to “fraudsters”. The Treasury has since disputed this figure.

After Lord Agnew’s dramatic exit Chancellor Rishi Sunak tweeted: “I’m not ignoring it, and I’m definitely not ‘writing it off’”.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe

With that in mind, it is worth noting that the figure would pay for the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe by over ten times.

The £400 million the UK owes to Iran relates to a cancelled order for 1,500 Chieftain tanks dating back to the 1970s – which has been linked to the continued detention of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other UK-Iranian dual nationals held in the country.

RelatedPosts

Elevenses: Rishi Won’t Say

Elevenses: The Biggest Swindle Of All

The Royal’s silence has proved Prince Harry was right to move his family out of the UK

Elevenses: You Are What You Say You Are

In 2017 Mr Johnson was accused of worsening the plight of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – the British-Iranian dual national held in Tehran on spying charges – after he wrongly claimed she was in the country teaching journalism.

Following his comments, Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who always maintained she was in Iran on holiday with her young daughter, was brought before a court and accused of engaging in propaganda.

Related: First Tory MP hints at leadership bid as his explicit nickname revealed

Since you are here

Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.

Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.

Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.

If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.

To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.

The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.

The shop can be found here.

You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending on TLE

  • All
  • trending
Abdollah

‘Rescue us’: Afghan teacher begs UK to help him escape Taliban

CHOMSKY: “If Corbyn had been elected, Britain would be pursuing a much more sane course”

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

More from TLE

Brexit diminished UK services exports by £110 billion, research shows

Third health minister reportedly used private email for government work

Brits sent home by Austria after failing to meet Covid rules

TV show The Wire’s creator dismantled Piers Morgan with these Tweets

Pentagon releases declassified videos of UFO encounters

A theme park advertises job for “elephant driver”

Weather forecast, alerts and UVB index for London, Wednesday 27 May 2020

Angela Merkel is responsible for Brexit, The Telegraph reckons

Scots don’t want to leave Britain – Britain has left them

Imagined Cities – Review

JOBS

FIND MORE JOBS

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

Contact

Editorial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Commercial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Address

The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE
Company number 09221879
International House,
24 Holborn Viaduct,
London EC1A 2BN,
United Kingdom

SUPPORT

We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. If you can, please show your appreciation for our free content by donating whatever you think is fair to help keep TLE growing and support real, independent, investigative journalism.

DONATE & SUPPORT

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • JOBS
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.