INVESTIGATION REVEALS LIVERPOOL COUNCIL LOST £154,000 TO FRAUD
New FOI data reveals over £154,000 has been lost to fraud and financial errors under Labour's watch - with nearly a third of cases never referred to the police!
Liverpool's Labour administration oversaw 28 cases of fraud, suspected fraud, or financial error between January 2020 and January 2026, totalling £154,626 of public money, according to figures released last week under the Freedom of Information Act.
Of those 28 investigations, only eight, less than one in three, were referred to the Merseyside Police. This has left Liverpool residents asking: what happened to the rest?
The figures come as Liverpool’s residents have just been hit with another council tax rise and fresh cuts to local services under a Labour council that has never been held to account over past corruption.
This has raised concerns that lessons have not been learnt from when the Council spent years under Government intervention, following the damning Caller Report.
The Liberal Democrats are putting the Labour Party on notice: this city will not be taken for granted any longer.
Kevin Robinson-Hale, a Community Campaigner in Everton, said:
"In Everton, we know what it means when public money is wasted - it's a leisure centre sat shut, a streetlight that doesn't get fixed, a family is left waiting for the support they desperately need.
“£154,626 lost to fraud and errors, with two-thirds of cases never even going to the police. That smacks of a Labour council that isn't on top of its finances and isn't being straight with the people it's supposed to serve. Our communities deserve so much better than this. They deserve an administration that will put Liverpool first."
Cllr Carl Cashman, Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Liverpool Liberal Democrats, said:
"Liverpool Labour have had 16 years in charge of this city, and what do they have to show for it? A legacy of corruption, fraud, and government intervention. At the end of the day, the people left footing the bill are the taxpayers.
“The Liberal Democrats want to put ‘Liverpool First’ - that means being honest about failures, fixing them, and putting residents before party politics. In 2027, Liverpool gets the chance to choose a council that actually puts this great city first - and that council will be led by the Liberal Democrats."
The Liberal Democrats want to enshrine council transparency in the administration by incorporating it into their financial portfolio holder brief. They want to make sure that every pound of public money works for the people of Liverpool, not against them.