All the noise around the disgraced Prime Minister has masked the Chancellor’s decision to write off a staggering £4.3 billion of taxpayers’ money to fraud.

The Government’s own anti-fraud minister Lord Agnew resigned in protest at ‘schoolboy errors’ over the lack of oversight with regards Covid business support schemes.

It’s eye-watering how much money has been wasted — £154 written-off for every one of the 27.8 million households in the UK.

That’s equivalent to 128,000 nurses’ salaries, 146,000 police officers or 1.5 QE class aircraft carriers.

And it’s worse than that. In Lord Agnew’s resignation speech, he said: “Total fraud loss across government is estimated at £29 billion a year.”

Imagine what just a fraction of those wasted billions could do for Northwich.

We could have a fully accessible railway station when our collapsed station gets rebuilt.

Investment could turbo-charge the redevelopment of Weaver Square.

And we wouldn’t have to jump through hoops to pursue funding for a new Winnington Bridge to address the pinch point that can only get worse if more homes are built without the proper infrastructure.

It irritates me the Tories have gained this undeserved reputation for financial competence and probity. It’s just not true.

Labour has uncovered £3.5 billion of Covid contracts awarded to Tory-linked firms. A healthcare firm advised by Tory MP Owen Paterson won a £133 million testing contract unopposed.

As Health Secretary, Matt Hancock intervened to help a former Conservative minister secure PPE contracts worth £180 million for a client.

And the Government’s unacceptable record of poor procurement over the last decade includes £13 billion wasted on defence projects.

This at a time when hard working families are dealing with a cost of living crisis caused by rising prices, rising taxes and a fall in real wages.

So forgive me if I get angry on learning Tory Peer, Lord Nicholas Gage, was granted more than £300k from a ‘levelling up’ fund to repave his driveway and that Foreign Secretary Liz Truss spent half a million pounds of your money taking a private jet to Australia instead of a scheduled flight.

Of course, a fish rots from the head. This government is paralysed by its focus on saving the Prime Minister’s skin. As he won’t do the honourable thing and resign, it is now the job of his Conservative MPs to remove him.