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Tag: Rachel Reeves

  • Rachel Reeves – 2021 Comments on Government Transparency During Pandemic

    Rachel Reeves – 2021 Comments on Government Transparency During Pandemic

    The comments made by Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, on 15 March 2021.

    This underlines the absolutely crucial need for this government to be far more transparent and honest, something Labour has consistently called for.

    Open and accountable governments make better governments, but Johnson’s administration has not only acted unlawfully in this regard, but also seems willing too often to bend the truth.

    With growing stories of taxpayer waste and cronyism, they should take the lessons from today’s report and immediately ramp up transparency to reassure the British people that they are using their money responsibly in the fight against Covid.

  • Rachel Reeves – 2021 Comments on UK Exports to EU Down 40% in January

    Rachel Reeves – 2021 Comments on UK Exports to EU Down 40% in January

    The comments made by Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, on 12 March 2021.

    These figures make it clear just how many British businesses have been struggling with the new reams of costly red tape and bureaucracy this Government has wrapped them in.

    Businesses have been appealing to the government to start listening to the problems they’ve been facing, but they’ve been left out in the cold.

    The Government must up their ambition here, and take practical action, hand in hand with businesses, to build on the limited deal they negotiated with the EU.

  • Rachel Reeves – 2021 Comments on Public Accounts Committee Report on Test and Trace

    Rachel Reeves – 2021 Comments on Public Accounts Committee Report on Test and Trace

    The comments made by Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, on 10 March 2021.

    This report reveals how this Government’s outsourced, Serco-led Test and Trace system failed the British people and led our country into restrictive lockdown after lockdown.

    It underlines the epic amounts of waste and incompetence, an overreliance on management consultants, taxpayers’ cash splashed on crony contracts, all while ministers insist our NHS heroes deserve nothing more than a clap and a pay cut.

    The Conservatives’ wasteful obsession with outsourcing must end and contact tracing should be run by our public health teams.

  • Rachel Reeves – 2021 Comments on Unpublished Covid Contracts

    Rachel Reeves – 2021 Comments on Unpublished Covid Contracts

    The comments made by Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, on 5 March 2021.

    It is deeply concerning how much the Government has relied on crony contracts throughout the pandemic, while leaving our frontline workers exposed.

    First the Government acted unlawfully, then the Prime Minister falsely claimed everything had been published.

    It is a basic right for the public to know where and how our cash is being spent. The Government needs to come out of hiding, simply publish the contracts it has sitting around and support our frontline staff with PPE not pay cuts.

  • Rachel Reeves – 2021 Comments on Allegations Relating to Matt Hancock’s Neighbour

    Rachel Reeves – 2021 Comments on Allegations Relating to Matt Hancock’s Neighbour

    The comments made by Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, on 22 February 2021.

    This is extremely worrying and the reasons for handing this contract out in the first place must be investigated and shared in the public interest.

    The Government needs to get a grip on the cronyism and waste marring its pandemic procurement. It must be far more transparent and publish outstanding contracts and details of the VIP fast lane now.

  • Rachel Reeves – 2021 Letter to Matt Hancock over His Conduct

    Rachel Reeves – 2021 Letter to Matt Hancock over His Conduct

    The letter written by Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, on 21 February 2021.

    Dear Secretary of State,

    I am writing today following the judicial review ruling yesterday by the High Court that the “Secretary of State for Health and Social Care acted unlawfully by failing to comply with the Transparency Policy” and that “there is now no dispute that, in a substantial number of cases, the Secretary of State breached his legal obligation to publish Contract Award Notices within 30 days of the award of contracts.”

    In handing down the judgment, the Judge also said: “The Secretary of State spent vast quantities of public money on pandemic-related procurements during 2020. The public were entitled to see who this money was going to, what it was being spent on and how the relevant contracts were awarded.”

    The Judge went on to say that if Government had complied with its legal obligations, there would have been the ability “to scrutinise CANs and contract provisions, ask questions about them and raise any issues with oversight bodies such as the NAO or via MPs in Parliament.”

    Given this clear legal ruling, and recent serious stories of cronyism and waste at the heart of this Government’s pandemic procurement, I am writing to you today to ask you six questions which I hope you will urgently answer:

    • Will you commit to publishing all outstanding contracts, winding down emergency procurement powers and reintroducing tendering, in light of the ruling and the huge amount of waste and cronyism marring Covid procurement?
    • When do you expect the government will find the billions of pounds worth of PPE, which you recently commissioned outside consultants to track down?
    • Do you think the government should have given Public First a Covid contract?
    • With the new NHS White Paper assigning increasing powers to the Secretary of State to hand out contracts, how does the government propose to hold itself accountable on who those contracts are handed to?
    • Does the government believe it is impossible to act with speed on PPE procurement without handing out contracts to friends and donors of the Conservative party?
    • Why won’t the government publish details of contracts awarded through its VIP fast lane? Given £1.7 billion has gone through this lane, do you think taxpayers deserve to know?

    I know you will appreciate how important it is that taxpayers know how their money is being spent through these contracts, that the government wants to tackle claims of cronyism and that, given this ruling of unlawfulness, that the government and yourself will do everything possible to maximise transparency, accountability and scrutiny.

    Many thanks,

    Rachel Reeves MP
    Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

  • Rachel Reeves – 2021 Comments on Hotel Quarantine Contracts

    Rachel Reeves – 2021 Comments on Hotel Quarantine Contracts

    The comments made by Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, on 19 February 2021.

    This Tory government’s obsession with outsourcing and repeated conflict of interests has marred its pandemic response.

    There has got be urgent reassurance that there are no conflicts of interest here – and that the public and those workers trying hard to make the hotel quarantine work don’t pay the price for this government’s last minute, shambolic planning.

  • Rachel Reeves – 2021 Comments on Dominic Cummings, Michael Gove and Public First

    Rachel Reeves – 2021 Comments on Dominic Cummings, Michael Gove and Public First

    The comments made by Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, on 15 February 2021.

    Today’s findings are troubling and unsurprising, and a perfect example of how this government believes it is one rule for them another for the rest of us.

    It is appalling that the government not only dismissed these very credible claims of connections influencing this contract as ‘nonsense’ – but also that it took a judicial review to bring to light what should be publicly available information on how taxpayer money is being spent.

    This government’s contracting has been plagued by cronyism and waste and they must take urgent steps to address this now – by urgently winding down emergency procurement, releasing details of the VIP fast lane, and publishing all outstanding contracts by the end of the month. This cronyism must stop.

  • Rachel Reeves – 2021 Comments on Public Services

    Rachel Reeves – 2021 Comments on Public Services

    The comments made by Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, on 7 February 2021.

    This Government has eroded not only our public services to the brink of collapse, but so much of what it means to be an honourable and transparent government.

    While this Tory Government has denied key workers in our public services a pay rise, they paid 900 management consultants at Deloitte £1,000 a day to work on test and trace.

    The beating heart of our country is the key workers who have kept us going through this last year. That’s why we applauded them. Children weren’t banging pots and pans for management consultants. They were clapping our key workers.

    The public is also paying a high price for this Government’s mismanagement and waste. This current Tory Party is rife with conflicts of interest. It’s all cheques and no balances.

    People expect all of us seeking government to spend their money with care and respect – and a Labour government will.

    Labour will clean up government contracting by strengthening FOI, introducing a new Independent Anti-Corruption Commissioner, and an Integrity and Ethics Commission to make us a world leader in good governance and transparency.

  • Rachel Reeves – 2021 Comments on the Fashion Industry

    Rachel Reeves – 2021 Comments on the Fashion Industry

    The comments made by Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, on 2 February 2021.

    This costly new red tape and bureaucracy is holding businesses and our proud British tradition of quality textiles and cutting edge fashion back.

    How many more of our industries will we see decline before this government takes action?

    They must work with the fashion and textile industry to make trade simple and plug the gaps in the deal to stop more businesses and our economic recovery paying the price.