Michelle Mone hits back at ministers - and political damage could be shared all round
While Baroness Mone and her husband's 拢60m profit are the face of the scandal, the lost billions could follow politicians around for a while to come.
Monday 18 December 2023 20:50, UK
Michelle Mone is all over the newspaper front pages, her fightback interview dubbed a "car crash" and compared with Prince Andrew.
But the trouble for the government is that the bruised baroness - who admitted lying about her involvement in deals made by her husband's company - may do them political damage in the process.
While covering a recent by-election, I pounded the streets in a marginal seat asking people their views on Labour and the Tories.
I was struck by how many responded by asking me a different question about COVID fraud - and when and how any of our politicians would go about clawing it back.
It's only a snapshot. But nearly four years on from the start of the pandemic, the numbers continue to astound.
The Department of Health and Social Care's accounts show £12bn was spent on personal protective equipment in 2020-2021.
Most of the money - £8.7bn - had to be written off and £4bn of it was unusable and had to be destroyed.
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Then there was the COVID loan scheme. MPs on the Public Accounts Committee, which scrutinises government spending, in September reported £1.1bn in fraud and error.
By May of this year, the government had only recovered £21m - less than 2%.
Levels of fraud rose dramatically during these years, with House of Commons figures suggesting fraud on all pandemic schemes amounted to £7.2bn.
The Labour Party has seized on the political potential, with shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves promising to set up a COVID Corruption Commissioner to recoup some of the lost billions if they win office.
I'm told by Labour sources that the issue often comes up in focus groups and has contributed to a narrative "about government incompetence as much as about corruption".
But there is risk it spreads the pain all round. As Gareth Davies, head of the National Audit Office said earlier this year: "In addition to the loss of taxpayer money, it creates the risk that people come to perceive fraud and corruption across government as normal and tolerated.
"If not tackled, this could affect public confidence in the integrity of public services."
Baroness Mone, who is no longer a Conservative, seems determined to drag ministers into the net, in order to show there was chaos in the awarding of many contracts.
On Monday, in a series of tweets, she claimed Michael Gove and other government officials "oversaw huge waste in PPE contracts".
Government sources say Mr Gove was not involved in PPE, but Baroness Mone's office claims she has 1,000 pieces of correspondence in her possession.
She specifically named Rishi Sunak - who ran the Treasury at the time - bringing up old allegations that he may have profited from a surge in the share price of the Moderna vaccine through a blind trust.
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Conservatives insist that the days of the pandemic were unprecedented - that PPE was desperately needed, and that without loans delivered swiftly, families would have lost their homes and livelihoods.
The government says it is committed to tackling public sector fraud and has spent hundreds of millions of pounds recovering losses.
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Conscious of the need to take action, last year a Public Sector Fraud Authority was set up to recoup money lost to COVID loan schemes among many other types of fraud.
Recouping it with new officials and teams is expensive and complex. But while Baroness Mone and her husband's £60m profit are the face of the scandal, the lost billions could follow politicians around for a while to come.