Today, for the third time in Parliament, I highlighted the questionable use of government Covid grants by Somerset County Council.
I am still far from satisfied with the vague assurances the council leader has offered to the Prime Minister.
But today Mr Fothergill wrote directly to me and sent copies of his letter to the press, MPs and Ministers – Letter to Ian Liddell Grainger 140121
My reply is just as curt and contains yet more detail – ILG reply to David Fothergill January 14th 2021.
I continue to believe that a large proportion of the money granted for the relief of Covid has been stashed away or used for other purposes. Even the council’s officials admit that these grants are not “ring fenced”.
I believe they should be. I am pressing the government to insist that they are – and have invited the Leader of Somerset County Council to face up to his moral duty and ring-fence all the grants so far given. He should account to the people he represents for every penny spent.
He must also come clean about the true state of the vaccination rollout. He has the figures, but he so far refuses to reveal them. Why?
In the House of Commons today I tackled the Leader of the House, Jacob Rees-Mogg, about SCC’s use of Covid grants: