Rishi Sunak’s Macavity-like vanishing act after damning fraud verdict – Tom Richmond

It began with Lord Agnew, a Treasury Minister, dramatically resigning at the House of Lords despatch box over “schoolboy” handling of fraudulent Covid business loans.

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It continued at PMQs when Johnson was asked: “Did the Prime Minister agree to the Chancellor of the Exchequer writing off £4.3bn of fraud?” The reply was intriguing: “No, of course not.”

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And, amid doubts whether Johnson’s response was intentional, mis-speak or another lie, a Treasury Select Committee review of the Budget revealed a £1bn post-Brexit cut in funding for regional development – casting more doubt on the London Government’s ‘levelling up’ plan.

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These are three significant setbacks to the self-conscious Sunak who is viewed as the leading contender to become Prime Minister when the discredited Johnson finally leaves office.

They’re become even more damning when set in the context of the forthcoming increase in taxes coupled with soaring energy costs while £4.3bn of fraud – the equivalent of £154 for every household – is being written off.

And while I, for one, have great sympathy for the Chancellor, and the support schemes he put in place when Covid struck, the confluence of these developments risk his reputation.

Taxpayers’ money cannot be distributed like confetti to fraudsters without proper scrutiny, hence why Sunak needs to reconcile the following conundrum rather than undertaking another Macavity-like vanishing act.

Is it any wonder, Chancellor, that taxes are going up by such a significant sum, and left behind areas being denied funding that they previously received from the European Union when, in the words of Lord Agnew, more than 1,000 companies received “bounce-back loans which were not even trading when Covid struck”? It’s fraud – political and economic – and it stinks as much as Sunak’s non-response to date.

THERE is one advantage to Richmond MP Rishi Sunak