Almost £9billion has been wasted on personal protective equipment, it emerged last night.
In a staggering illustration of Government waste, much of the Covid kit was faulty or not used before its sell-by date.
Ministers also paid hugely over the odds and were left with equipment that later crashed in value. In all, £8.7billion has had to be written off by the Department of Health and Social Care.
The damning revelation comes a week after it emerged that £4.3billion had been lost to coronavirus support loan scams.
The £13billion combined cost to the taxpayer is more than the £12billion expected to be raised each year by April’s planned national insurance hike.
Campaigners and MPs said the write-offs would enrage families facing the tax hike in the midst of a cost of living crisis.
Tory peer Michelle Mone was accused of using her position to help PPE Medpro win a £203m contract, despite her and her billionaire husband having close links to the company
The use of ten million gowns, imported via Miami-based jewellery designer Michael Saiger (pictured with his wife and business partner Rachel Russell), was suspended because officials put the wrong packaging specifications on the contract
Among those to make small fortunes from PPE contracts was banker Tim Horlick (pictured with his ex-wife Nicola) who sourced £253million of PPE from Asia after his firm Ayanda was fast-tracked by an adviser to Foreign Secretary Liz Truss
Several contracts…