Dame Siobhain McDonagh
MP for Mitcham and Morden · Labour · United Kingdom
“Q5. In a capital city still scarred by the loss of 72 lives in the Grenfell fire, we have a second equally flammable and deadly risk. In bedrooms and corridors across London, low-paid deliverers for Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats are charging the tools of their trade: lethal lithium e-bike batteries.”
“I am therefore delighted that NHS London announced up to £57 million to expand and modernise St Helier’s emergency department. However, that cannot be the end. St Helier needs renewal. Only days later, there was an announcement that disrepair in the women’s services block meant that it would have to close.”
“The walk-in centre at the Wilson hospital in Mitcham, which once treated patients every day until midnight, even on Christmas day, has gone. Out-of-hours GP services have been reduced. Those patients have not disappeared; they now go to St Helier.”
“A number of constituents who work as nurses in the A&E department at St Helier hospital asked me to come to see for myself what they were dealing with. They asked me to come late on a Monday morning, rather than a Saturday or Sunday night as I had anticipated. What I saw was deeply troubling.”
“St Helier hospital has the fourth best maternity unit in the country, the only exclusively NHS-run assisted conception unit in south-west London, and a specialist gynaecology ward where nurses are highly trained in counselling. Yet all that is set to close next May because of the need for emergency repairs.”
“I thank the Petitions Committee and my friends from Brain Cancer Justice, who I affectionately think of as the provisional wing of the all-party parliamentary group on brain tumours. In July last year, we launched Margaret’s trial at University College London hospital.”
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“Thank you, Mr Pritchard. Anyone would say that I was garrulous after those comments. I thank and congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Dame Meg Hillier) on bringing forward this really important debate. For households across our country, the cost of living is soaring. We have seen the biggest tax hike since the 1940s, the largest drop in living standards since the 1950s, public sector net debt reaching the highest level since the 1960s, and real earnings growth facing the largest one-year drop since the 1970s. Rising inflation, a hike in national insurance, and rocketing energy costs are putting unprecedented pressure on the pockets of hard-working families in all our constituencies.”
“For families waiting years for a trial, their unimaginable grief is worsened by the knowledge that the driver responsible for the death of their loved one can legally jump back in their car and get back on to the roads. The Clack family are campaigning for anyone who causes death while driving to have their licence suspended immediately. Their Change.org petition already has tens of thousands of supportive signatures, and I would like to quote from the family’s petition directly.”
“The car had careered into a tree, leading to the hospitalisation of Lillie Clack and the injury of several others in the car. Devastatingly, Lillie died just a few days later, in the afternoon of 28 December. For Lillie’s family, their lives have changed forever. Nothing will bring her home. But if the grief of a lost daughter, sister and niece was not enough, the time since has brought further pain to the Clack family, and it is because of a gap in the law. As it stands, there is nothing to prevent someone charged with dangerous driving, even in this situation, where a young woman has lost her life, from continuing to drive until their case gets to court and they are found guilty.”
“It certainly will, Madam Deputy Speaker, because I have one single very important issue to bring to the attention of the House and the Leader of the House—a tragic case of dangerous driving. I also want to raise a clear gap in the law that I hope he will agree it is both easy and essential for the Government to change. In the early hours of Christmas morning, two policemen knocked on my constituent Debbie’s door. A 3 am visit from the emergency services was their worrying signal that something bad had happened, but for Debbie, Michael, Donna and all the Clack family, the news was their very worst nightmare. Debbie’s daughter, Lillie, had been in a car whose intoxicated driver had refused to slow or stop for the police.”
“I hope the Leader of the House will agree that changing the dangerous driving law is unquestionably the right thing to do. I know his assurance that he will take this forward will be of considerable comfort to a grieving family.”
“If that is the case, will he take this issue up with the relevant Minister to report back? Sadly, this is not the only painful experience that the family has had to face since Lillie’s death. Around a dozen videos have been uploaded anonymously to YouTube, featuring Lillie’s name, photograph and details of her death. The purpose of the videos is unclear, other than to cause further pain to the family. My office has repeatedly been in contact with YouTube to call for the videos to be taken down. Although progress is finally being made, it has taken weeks of discussion and delay. It seems the threshold for removing harmful content is, appallingly, higher than the trolling of a mourning family. My heart goes out to the Clack family for the pain that they have suffered these past three months.”
“I can assure you, Madam Deputy Speaker, that there will be no reference to those involved in the particular case or to anyone who will potentially be charged. The petition states: “The law needs to change! If it doesn’t, people will continue to die and families will continue to endure the torment and torture after losing a loved one. We will never get Lillie back and the experience so far can’t be changed but we will fight to endeavour that no other family has to go through the hell that comes after a loved one has been killed by a driver that made a choice to drive recklessly and dangerously!” Will the Leader of the House indicate in his closing remarks whether he agrees with me and the Clack family that there is a clear and rectifiable gap in the law?”
“Member for Chingford and Woodford Green on procuring items for the NHS, and extend the number of people to be sanctioned for their involvement in the genocide of the Uyghurs.”
“The Chinese Government continue their clampdown on freedoms in the city, so the question had to be asked as to the difference made by continued support lent to the judicial system. I recognise that there are difficult decisions to be made here. In theory, the question is whether it is better to be in the room or watching from outside. However, the longer we remained inside, the clearer it became that the ability to influence was close to redundant, and that our presence instead provided a veneer of legitimacy to a judicial system that had long since lost its democratic legitimacy. I am glad that the Government have made their decision today. I hope that they will go further—that they listen to the amendment suggested by the right hon.”
“That is not just the view of the Members here today, or of the Government; Hong Kong’s Chief Executive, Carrie Lam, herself noted that foreign judges have helped “maintain a high degree of confidence” in Hong Kong’s legal system. I am glad that the British Government share my concerns. After all, they have already introduced the new visa route for British nationals overseas, extended the arms embargo for exports to China to include Hong Kong, and suspended the UK’s extradition treaty with Hong Kong indefinitely. The concern was always apparent. However, when we consider the changes since those measures, the reality is that the situation in Hong Kong has not improved.”
“However, in reality they are only able to preside over trials in the Court of Final Appeal, and given that they have no influence over the cases that come before that court, it is unlikely that they would ever have been chosen for a national security law case. In fact, we were still waiting for an overseas judge to participate in a case considered under the law, because the Hong Kong Chief Executive and National Security Commission were able to hand-pick them. I am glad that the Government have agreed that the overseas judges’ presence on the grounds of influence was erroneous at best. The simple fact is that as long as overseas judges continued to serve in Hong Kong, they would have been providing unwitting support for the Chinese Government’s crushing of the city’s democracies, rights and freedoms.”
“We all know that the presence of overseas judges stretches back to a 1997 agreement, which aimed to maintain Hong Kong’s judiciary’s independence and credibility. However, the circumstances have changed. The introduction of the Hong Kong national security law has undeniably restricted those rights and freedoms guaranteed to Hong Kong 25 years ago, and the legal system is unquestionably compromised. Now, the Hong Kong Secretary for Justice decides the charges in sensitive national security cases; there is a pre-vetted list of designated national security law judges; the Hong Kong Government decide on the judge; and everything is held closely to account by the pro-Beijing press. Some people—with the best of intentions, I am sure—argue that overseas judges maintain influence, and that they have some kind of sway.”
“Huge congratulations to the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith) for all his leadership, time and commitment on this issue, and to all the other Members across the House who have made their views clear and put effort into encouraging the Government to take today’s decision. I appreciate that it cannot have been easy. Any of us involved in human rights issues across the world are regularly frustrated with the response of the Foreign Office, because of the argument that staying there and arguing the case is better than walking away and standing up. I appreciate that the balance in that argument is a very fine one, but there must come a point at which carrying on in the hope of diplomacy is simply not the right answer. I have a few simple points to put on the record today.”
“It really is the gift of sight.” I finish by asking the Minister to reassure me today that the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England will publicly reaffirm the commitment to the special school eye care service and push on with the job of establishing it. Ongoing evaluation can still happen to understand how to fully operationalise, while ensuring that children get the service. These children deserve an equal right to sight.”
“Let us get the Department for Education on board, too. It already recognises the need for glasses in mainstream schools through its “Glasses in Classes” initiative. I conclude with a quote from a new school, Kingsley special school, which has just started with the service. Reshma Hirani, assistant head, says: “This service should be part of the NHS core offer so that it never stops. My pupils have struggled to access eye care in the community and now they have, quite rightly, something that is going to transform their lives. Well done NHS England for thinking about schools like Kingsley and our children. As a Qualified Teacher of Children and Young People with Vision Impairment I can now put in the support that children need, with the confidence that I have all the right information to hand.”
“Paring back a service to a much smaller number of schools—if that is the plan—misses the bigger picture of unaddressed health inequalities and leaves unreformed the NHS sight testing scheme for patients with a severe learning disability seen in optical practices or day special schools. It has already been wonderful to read of the Minister’s recognition of the potential for the service and the work of Perseid School. I know that she already recognises the folly of sending children with learning disabilities into out-patient eye clinics for sight tests, as they are some of the busiest places, with the longest waits for appointments. Only yesterday we saw the publication of the Government’s ambitions for the special educational needs system. If anything, this is a programme of work that delivers outcomes for SEND children on so many levels.”
“I remind the House that one study found that 54% of children with disabilities do not attend their eye clinic appointments because of the difficulties they have—something that a special school service does not experience, as children who miss a visiting clinic one day can be seen quickly at the next and their place taken by another child who has been waiting to be seen. Tens of thousands more children with severe learning disabilities attend day special schools than attend residential schools, and the residential school population is decreasing, with no residential special schools at all in some areas. How will a focus on residential special schools address the bigger picture of a huge cohort of children, young people and adults with learning disabilities missing out on the NHS eye care they need?”
“There is talk of evaluation, but does that raise the prospect of a halt in day special school services, which have only just got off the ground, and for how long will we have to wait for evaluation? As I have outlined, there is no doubt about the need for reform. That much is sure. I am sure that it cannot be the intention to send children who are now being seen by a service, some of whom have already been discharged to it by hospital eye clinics, back into hospital eye clinics, particularly as there is a separate NHS programme that is actively trying to reduce out-patient eye clinic use.”
“Back in 2019, wording in “The NHS Long Term Plan” specified that dental, hearing and sight checks would be delivered in residential special schools, but that was in addition to a wider pledge in the same plan to improve access to eye care for children with learning disabilities. However, it now appears that NHS England is promoting the need to establish the service in residential special schools, and recruitment has stopped for new day special schools. Anxieties are building about whether the long-term intention is to limit the service to a few thousand children in residential special schools only, despite all the important work done so far, and about what that ambiguity means for day special schools where there is now a new NHS service—for schools such as Perseid and children such as Ellie.”
“It is a phase that will help evaluate an appropriate fee and glasses dispensing service, and therefore the best way to operationalise nationally. The service is now up and running in 97 special schools, 91 of which are day schools, with a total pupil population of more than 12,000. Clinicians from Bradford to London, Cheshire to Durham, are also under contract to deliver the service. Some of the new NHS teams have only just begun their work, but the early picture is of much unmet need, with many children not having had a sight test before and with a high need for glasses. So far, so good, but some ambiguity has crept in recently, which is the reason for calling today’s debate.”
“It is important to put on the record that clinical backing for the service has come from all of the eye care professional bodies and colleges, and from Public Health England. In 2019, I was pleased to attend an event at Perseid, with NHS England in attendance, to celebrate its commitment, which was signed off at a senior level earlier that year. The service has therefore been promoted as a long-term proposition. Although the pandemic knocked everyone off course, I understand funding proper began in April 2021. We are in the early days as the service is in its proof of concept phase, although it is important to put on the record that the pilot is not about the need for a service. That is beyond doubt.”
“It began working collaboratively with eye care professional bodies and learning disability charities, first on a proposal for an NHS special school eye care service with the potential to reach 130,000 children, but also on longer-term plans to improve community optical practice access, too—pathways for the children not at special schools and adults with learning disabilities. They exist in only a few areas of the country. The new NHS special school eye care service model does not exist anywhere else in the country, because it provides a one-stop shop for multidisciplinary eye care through full NHS sight testing, glasses dispensing, and specialist lenses and testing kits, alongside the report on a child’s vision and liaison with hospital eye clinics and teaching staff.”
“Moreover, it was clear that where services were targeted, it was only down to motivated eye care professionals filling a gap, usually through secondary care. The project found that almost half of the children had accessed or were under the care of a hospital eye clinic, but often for routine eye care such as a sight test. Fast forward to 2018 and, to its huge credit, NHS England accepted that it lacked a strategic approach to targeting much needed NHS sight tests and to improving primary eye care for people with learning disabilities.”
“I was so impressed that seven years ago I initiated a debate and the Minister at the time, Alistair Burt, readily gave his time to visit the project and see the benefits for himself. The Department of Health and Social Care then granted innovation funding for the SeeAbility project to expand in other day special schools and report on its findings. As well as finding a huge level of vision problems and a need for glasses in particular, it found that children were not accessing their right to an NHS sight test in the community. Only one in 10 children has ever had an NHS sight test, and over four in 10 have no history of eye care. NHS England has a responsibility to ensure equitable access to sight tests and primary eye care, but there was a clear picture of unmet need.”
“The school has an exceptional record of innovation, with a fantastic headteacher. I was delighted to learn that the Minister also knows the school from her recent visit to see the service in action. In 2013, Perseid began to work with the charity, SeeAbility, to offer sight tests and dispense glasses in the school environment. A user-friendly report on what the children could see was part of the scheme for parents and teachers. Parents like Alyson told me on the visit that her daughter, Ellie, was getting used to eye care in the familiar environment of school and not having to take time out for hospital eye clinic appointments. That provided one less thing for her to worry about as a parent and had greatly reduced Ellie’s anxiety.”
“I beg to move, That this House has considered NHS Special Schools Eye Care Service. I am delighted to lead a debate on a hugely beneficial development for the children who are often the most overlooked and yet most in need of targeted healthcare. The NHS special school eye care service has long been in the offing, originating from the stark statistic that children with learning disabilities are 28 times more likely to have a sight problem than other children. Four out of five children with a severe learning disability attend a special school, and decades-worth of studies and reports have all identified a higher level of sight problems in children attending day special schools. I was first alerted to the issue when I visited my local special school, Perseid in Morden, in 2015.”
“SeeAbility is very worried that, by raising this issue, it will be seen as just trying to keep its work. It wishes the Minister to be absolutely clear that its concern is for this invaluable service to remain in the special day schools that it already exists in, and for other children and young people to get the opportunity to have that life-changing service as well.”
“The Minister will be aware that the problem with these services is that they are small and difficult to set up on a local basis. Given the pressure that the NHS is under to do big things and to commission work that large numbers of people need, this sort of specialist service gets left behind, except where an individual is personally committed to it. That does not happen everywhere, not because people are bad but simply because they have so much on. It is important that NHS England takes on this service as a whole and is committed to it as a whole. Will the Minister help me, and any other Members who are interested, to secure the opportunity to speak to NHS England?”
“The Minister is being generous with her time, but I am sure she understands why I am so passionate about this service. It is not just great quality for the children, but it helps the teachers if there is an easier way of learning. A parent of a child with severe special needs has a huge number of appointments to attend, as well as the demands of other children and their work. Just getting their child into a high-street or hospital eye clinic is yet another problem that takes time, is difficult to do and causes a bit of mayhem when they get there. This scheme works for everybody: the children, the schools and the hard-pressed parents.”
“Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) made the point about the recession. If those members of staff lose the little money they currently receive and are under greater pressure to pay their gas and electricity bills, food bills and travel costs to work, we will see disquiet and trouble in our country of a size that we have never seen before. We know the problem exists, we know the loophole exists, and we know that other companies that have difficult times over the coming months and years in our economy will look to do the same thing. The Government must decide whether they will close those loopholes and stand up for those workers, or whether they are prepared to see levels of discontent in our country that we have not seen in 50 years.”
“He was a man with two children, who earned £16,000 a year working for the company and was being consulted on losing £2,500—his bonuses, his break money, his forklift truck allowance—because B&Q could not afford to pay him £16,000 a year. I would like to see anybody in this Chamber live on £16,000 a year in London. Sainsbury’s is a company regarded as among the most respectable. I hold one share in Sainsbury’s and I went to its annual general meeting in 2018 to talk about the 8,000 members of long-term staff who were going to lose up to £3,000 a year. Hon. Members should not be mistaken: P&O will not be the last, although it may be the least successful. There are thousands of people destined to have their terms and conditions changed unless we change the law. My right hon.”
“I add my voice in expressing outrage at the utterly appalling treatment of staff by P&O Ferries. Its methods may be more brutal, more direct and more organised, but there is a reason the company thought it could get away with them: it is simply doing what some of the most high-profile and respected businesses in our country have been doing for years. Sainsbury’s, Asda, B&Q, Marks & Spencer and even companies that bear our country’s name and flag, British Airways and British Gas, offer 90 days’ consultation and someone’s contract—however long they have worked for the company, however loyal they have been, however much they have done their job to the best of their ability—counts for nothing. I only entered the debate on this issue when my constituent Joseph came to see me, six years ago now, to show me a consultation document from B&Q.”
“When schools closed, the move to remote learning highlighted the digital divide in our society. Schools such as the outstanding Ursuline High School were already at the forefront of technology, giving every pupil a tablet and offering six lessons a day from home right from the start, but others did not have the kit required. For those still on the wrong side of the digital divide, every click widens the attainment gap. Aside from the emergency lockdown devices, what support is being offered to equip schools with the skills, time and kit to ensure that no child is left behind in our technological world?”
“Last year, Merton had 32 three-bedroom properties to give to all the bands. Even though Miss T is top of the list, it would be extraordinary if she were to get somewhere else to live within the next five years. By then, all three children, with whom she sleeps on the floor, will be teenagers. In how many cities and how many parts of this country is that acceptable?”
“The space in the bathroom where she has to lay him out, in order to help him to use the toilet, is probably 18 inches by 18 inches. She is in band A on the housing register. I visited her home last week, and took the head of housing with me. I can offer her no help or support. She is at the top of the list, but she will probably not get a house that is adapted or adaptable in her son’s lifetime. Let me tell hon. Members about Miss T, who lives with her three children in a combined living room and kitchen, while her former partner, who is the tenant of the flat and has multiple sclerosis, is in the bedroom. Of those three children, one is severely autistic. Miss T has a neurological brain disorder. She is in band A on the housing register; there are 32 families ahead of her.”
“I have worked in housing all my life, and the things that I see happening to children in my constituency today keep me awake at night. I am sure that similar issues in her constituency keep my hon. Friend the Member for Westminster North (Ms Buck), the shadow Minister, awake at night, too. I will just share two stories. First, Mr and Mrs B have three children. Their eldest son has muscular dystrophy. He cannot walk or use a bathroom; he needs physical help to do those things. He lives in an unadaptable house. His tiny mum picks him up, throws him over her shoulder and walks up the steep steps to get him upstairs to his bedroom. When he needs to use the bathroom, she throws him back over her shoulder and carries him back down the stairs.”
“My being here might seem a bit strange, given I am a London MP, but I must set out the problems that we experience in London. I cannot even fall back on the suggestion that I am from north London. My borough is an outer south London borough, which is home to some of the richest places in the entire country, such as the All England Lawn Tennis Club. However, there is a difference of nine years in life expectancy between people living near the All England Club and people living in the heart of my constituency—places only a 15-minute bus ride apart. In Mitcham and Morden, 46% of children are regarded as living in poverty. However, there is an issue that is uppermost in my mind—indeed, I may even be relying on this speech to be a bit of therapy for me. In May, I will have been an MP for 25 years.”
“Will the Minister clarify the point about 100,000 children brought out of poverty before housing costs? What is the number after taking account of housing costs?”
“Every click widens the attainment gap, which is why I am calling for every child on free school meals to have the catch-up kit and connectivity that they need to log in and learn from home. The Government may be distracted by the hangover of their party season, but their scant support for our students is no cause for celebration. The Government must address this issue with the gravity it requires or step aside so that we can get on with the job, because our children, particularly our poorest children, do not get a second chance.”
“Lockdown was temporary but could have a lifelong impact, with the Institute of Fiscal Studies warning that students who had lost six months of schooling could see a reduction in lifetime income of 4%. In primary schools, the unavoidable reality is of a covid gap of approximately two months’ learning in year 2 pupils and a widening of the disadvantage gap in attainment. Meanwhile, a quarter fewer poor pupils achieved English and maths GCSEs during the pandemic than their richer classmates, and the divide continues to grow. There were 415,000 children off school with covid on 20 January, but only 2% of teachers working in schools, serving the most disadvantaged communities, said that all their pupils had adequate access to devices and the internet to work from home.”
“How is this possibly a good use of public funds, and how on earth does it help our young children to catch up? The failings are there for all to see. Only one in five headteachers in the north-east of England uses the programme. Many schools have found it impossible to enrol new children onto it, and the scheme is reaching less than 10% of its target pupil number. It is no wonder that tuition providers themselves have described it as shambolic. Before lockdown, children on free school meals were leaving school 18 months behind their classmates and the gap was getting worse. Schools closed and a quarter of these children did less than one hour’s schoolwork a day.”
“While the Chancellor blocks the catch-up funding with one hand, he waves away wasted billions with another: £8.7 billion lost on PPE; £4.3 billion handed out to fraudsters; and a bonus £200 million thrown at the plans to downgrade St Helier Hospital to healthy, wealthy Belmont rather than keeping services where health is poorest. We are eight months on since Sir Kevan’s damning indictment of the so-called catch-up plan. I take no satisfaction in saying that every word of his damning predictions has come true. It is a catch-up programme that is so inept that the national tutoring programme is even teaching to empty classrooms. An assistant headteacher at a school in Derby shockingly reports that her school was paying a tutor to sit with no pupils for an hour. It is scandalous.”
“The catch-up programme does not even come close to meeting “the scale of the challenge.” Those are not my words, but the words of the Government’s own education recovery tsar whose resignation in June is all the evidence that anyone needs when considering whether the scale of the challenge is really understood. Sir Kevan’s essential proposals were watered down to the tune of less than 10% of the funding that he insisted was required. Why does the Minister think that this issue can be just brushed under the carpet?”
“Quite simply, this debate could not be any more important. The inaction of the Government in catching up the lost learning of our young people will be felt by many of them for a lifetime. Why is it that our children, teachers and schools have been treated as an afterthought at every stage of the pandemic? We have seen the Government: closing schools without a second thought for those pupils who could not log in or learn from home; opening schools back up for less than 24 hours to encourage the virus to run rife; and leaving every announcement until past even the 11th hour—whether it be on exams, on testing, on vaccines. When it comes to education, the contrast could not be starker. This Government think that they can cut corners on the months of lost learning, but, for Labour, education is so important that we say it three times.”
“The wild west of NHS South West London is recklessly plotting to downgrade Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals by moving the A&E, intensive care, maternity unit, children’s services and 62% of beds to healthy, wealthy Belmont. As I have repeated time and again to the Government, however, using allocated funds to improve services where health is poorest has been proven to save up to £200 million. That sum would not clear the Greensill balance sheet, but no doubt it would go some way to doing so.”
“The Treasury declined the lobbying with one hand but with the other palmed the organisation to the British Business Bank—a public institution backed by taxpayers’ money—which handed out £400 million of loan guarantee funds. As Mrs Thatcher famously said: “There is no such thing as public money; there is only taxpayers’ money.” Instead of unlocking finance for small businesses, it unlocked finance for fraudsters. Fraudulent organisations such as Greensill were able to lucratively lobby and receive hundreds of millions of pounds while many businesses and hard-working families in my constituency, and every constituency across the country, were left with nothing. Waste is not just happening in private business dealings; it is also happening in the scheme for the Prime Minister’s promised 40 new hospitals.”
“Again, at the beginning of 2019, the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulatory Authority began an investigation into Wyelands Bank, the banking arm of GFG Alliance, Greensill’s principal partner. In February 2020, the Bank even set out its concerns to the Serious Fraud Office and the National Crime Agency. It is inconceivable that this was not detected or known. Greensill was a crook parading a Ponzi scheme in plain sight, but was introduced across the highest levels of Government. It is an embarrassment for Britain’s financial reputation. The biggest loser in this whole sorry saga is the British taxpayer. Our Committee’s concerns were batted away by the Treasury, which insisted that it had rejected Greensill’s attempts to secure funding. As ever, the devil is in the detail.”
“It was all under the guise of so-called supply chain finance, but the reality is that 90% of Greensill’s business was nothing more than clairvoyancy, lending against transactions that had never happened and might never happen—companies did not even know that they were involved—and then selling that as a low-risk investment, half the time without any invoice evidence that anything had ever happened. There was overwhelming evidence that this was a business based on deception, years before. In 2019, Reuters published articles highlighting the precise reasons why Greensill would collapse two years later. At the time of those articles, Greensill sued Reuters and lost. Meanwhile, the late Lord Myners, a former Treasury Minister, was asking questions about the Greensill business model in the House of Lords.”
“At the height of the pandemic, Government Departments were infiltrated by the desperate lobbying of a former Prime Minister, phoning friends for Lex Greensill, the founder of Greensill Capital and the originator of a Ponzi scheme, a derivative of supply chain finance, known as prospective receivables. Twenty-five texts, 12 WhatsApp messages, eight emails, 11 calls and nine meetings with senior Ministers and officials—David Cameron was WhatsApping his way around Whitehall on the back of a fraudulent enterprise, based on selling bonds of high-risk debt to unsuspecting investors.”
“On the Chancellor’s watch, £4.3 billion of covid business support has been stolen by fraudsters—£4.3 billion. Of course we recognise the scale of the covid support schemes and the speed with which they had to be developed, but upon their formation HMRC made it crystal clear that those schemes would be targets abroad. How right it was: 8.7% of furlough payments, 8.5% of the eat out to help out scheme and 2.5% of support for freelancers and entrepreneurs has all fallen into the hands of fraudsters and been written off by the Treasury. It is a complete disgrace. However, from the evidence that I have heard in the Treasury Committee, we should add another half a billion pounds to the list of wasted funds. I am talking of Greensill Capital.”