Public Expenditure

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 1:47 pm on 21 December 1999.

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Photo of David Heathcoat-Amory David Heathcoat-Amory Conservative, Wells 1:47, 21 December 1999

I shall not give way again because I have already dealt with the point.

We found more than £100 million of fraud in the distribution of benefits from local government. Nine separate consultants have been appointed to advise the Government on the privatisation of the London underground. However, because the Government keep changing their mind—or having it changed for them by the hon. Member for Brent, East (Mr. Livingstone)—most of the expenditure is wasted. It had already totalled £18.5 million by May this year, and the figure is almost certain to have increased greatly by now.

When the Prime Minister was challenged about expenditure on the euro last week, he refused to give a figure for expenditure on the national handover plan. Later, his spokesman gave a figure to journalists, but it did not include expenditure by Government Departments on the changeover to the euro, which is already happening. The figure is a secret.

Let us consider the fiasco of gold sales. An independent estimate has shown that selling gold in a falling market to buy euros has already cost £26.2 million—a highly conservative estimate.