Former home secretaries back call for new ‘fraud minister’ role after billions stolen during pandemic

The furlough scheme is particularly vulnerable to exploitation, writes Andy Gregory

An example of a phishing email from someone posing as the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and asking recipients to donate money to a coronavirus fund (PA)

Sajid Javid and David Blunkett, two former home secretaries, have backed a report which warns that billions of public funds have been stolen by fraudsters during the coronavirus pandemic and calls for the creation of a new “fraud minister” role within government.

The Policy Exchange report, titled “Daylight Robbery”, calculates that fraudsters are likely to exploit emergency funding measures, in particular the furlough scheme, to the tune of between £1.3bn and £7.9bn during the crisis, with government errors also adding to the total.

In the week that chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiled his £30bn “mini-budget”, researchers cautioned the government’s response to the crisis is particularly vulnerable to fraud, due to the novelty and speed with which new measures have been introduced and the size of relief packages.