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Private Eye just destroyed the Tories claims around DWP benefit fraud

Towards the end of May, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) made some pomp and ceremony about catching some honest-to-goodness (though maybe not so much) real-life benefit fraudsters. Now however, the Private Eye has shown up crony capitalist Conservatives for the charlatans they truly are. In particular, the DWP’s “biggest ever” benefit fraud pales beside the Tories’ own Covid corruption. With the general election on the horizon, Private Eye wasn’t about to let the public forget it.

DWP benefit fraud vs Covid contracts

Specifically, the outlet drew a deliciously damning comparison. It presented the side-by-side figures for the government’s “biggest ever” benefit fraud sentencing, and the billions of Covid fraud the Tories have pissed up the wall:

Yes, the toxic Tory government that oversaw billions in Covid fraud, is now puffing out its chest on its first big-boy benefit fraud breakthrough. As the Canary previously reported:

after a two-year investigation, the DWP has “cracked down” on a four-person benefit-laundering gang. It has exposed them for fraudulent claims of £53.9m.

Funnily enough though, as Private Eye’s comparison highlighted, the government doesn’t speak about the billions in Covid fraud. But then, the Tories are the OG embodiment of “mates rates” after all:

Forget ‘dishy’, the prime ministers new nickname just dropped. And we think this one’s a lot more apt:

What do you get then when you put Tories and a deadly pandemic together? Necrotic, crisis capitalism. By that we’re referring to the Tories’ proclivity for profiteering from quite literally killing vulnerable people. See: Tens of thousands of Tory-driven benefit deaths, hundreds of thousands to Tory-made austerity, and hundreds of thousands more to Tory-devised piss poor pandemic policy.

Dr Death and his hedge fund fortune

One poster pointed out that while Johnson, and ‘Dr Death’ Sunak were pursuing a ‘let it rip’ approach, their corporate chums were indeed ripping off the public too:

Of course, after some media fanfare, the government did start going after Mone. This is for her £122m in Covid PPE corruption. However, even supposing the government clawed that back, it’s a grand total of (drum roll please): 1.7% of total Covid fraud.

Moreover, by corruption, X users didn’t just mean ‘fishy Rishi’s’ crooked government’s Covid contract fraud either. We see you too Dido Harding:

And posters weren’t about to let the sleazebag Sunak off the hook either. It wasn’t that long ago that the vulture capitalist was manufacturing the financial crash and raking in millions himself after all:

Of course, that’s not even to mention how it paved the way for the Tories’ deadly austerity agenda. So, it’s a bit rich when Rishi and the DWP dumps on disabled and poor benefit claimants. Particularly when its purposely callous rhetoric rests on bloated benefit fraud figures. Or when it pumps out its back to work bullshit. Naturally, as the Canary has consistently reported, this is exactly what they’ve been doing, over and over again.

Ultimately, the Tories have presided over the deaths of at least 35,000 people seeking or on benefits, and stripped 180,000 of their social security. They’ve done all this while forking out billions to their mates. So tell me again about that £53.9m in benefit fraud. It’s all just another day for the ‘Department for Wet-wipes and Pointless cruelty’ and the Tory crooks that run this circus.

Feature image via UK Prime Minister/Wikimedia, cropped and resized to 1200 by 900, licensed under CC BY 2.0

By Hannah Sharland

This post was originally published on Canary.