Labour urges Government to sack Deloitte from controversial Test and Trace contract

Labour has today demanded that the Government reverse its decision to “mark its own homework” following news it gave the outsourcing and accountancy giant Deloitte a contract to prepare Test and Trace for the public inquiry.

According to reports in Private Eye, Deloitte has been awarded a contract to create a “knowledge management system in preparation for the public inquiry”, including an “evidence generation strategy”.

The Government awarded hundreds of millions of pounds of contracts to Deloitte to run Test and Trace, with the firm’s website celebrating the role that Deloitte staff played in all aspects of Test and Trace’s operations – with staff being paid up to £6,000 a day and Deloitte earning £1 million per day in fees.

Angela Rayner MP, Labour’s Deputy Leader and Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said: “This sends a clear message that the Government’s priority in the public inquiry will not be the openness, transparency and honesty that we need and that bereaved families deserve.

“The Conservatives have wasted tens of billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on a failed Test and Trace system.

“Deloitte were paid hundreds of millions of pounds by Test and Trace so it is clearly completely wrong for the company to then be awarded a contract to mark their own homework and help prepare the strategy for dealing with the public inquiry into the government’s mishandling of the pandemic, including the failures of Test and Trace.

“Labour will end this gravy train and this racket that sees taxpayers’ money abused, wasted and lining the pockets of the bosses of outsourcing companies. Our public services should and will be run in the public interest, not private profit.”