Outrage as £28bn of taxpayer money handed to terrorists and gangsters | UK | News
Taxpayers’ money went to Islamic State terrorists, report says (Image: Daily Record)
According to reports, the UK Government has transferred £28 billion of taxpayers’ money to terrorists, hostile states and gangsters. A secret dossier detailing the transactions shows billions of pounds went to organized crime groups between 2015 and 2021, and millions of pounds went to Russia and the Islamic State.
The report was compiled by the Cabinet Office but was ultimately suppressed by the previous Government to avoid humiliation. Telegram. According to the newspaper, those revealed include Coronavirus loans sent to Islamist terrorists and grants given to companies linked to the Russian state. Taxpayers’ cash was also allegedly given to anti-Western extremists and human traffickers seeking disability benefits and housing benefits. Rebecca Harding of the Center for Economic Security said the dossier highlighted the growing threat posed by “adversaries, state actors and non-state actors” through “economic warfare.”
The transactions were documented in a dossier revealed by The Telegraph (Image: Getty)
“One of the problems is that we assume everyone wants the same thing as us,” he said. “What we don’t realize when it comes to other countries is… [some] “They want to project their economic power in a way that undermines our economic power.”
Professor Nicholas Ryder, a former adviser to the Home Affairs Select Committee, also described it as “staggering” and added that “the link between fraud and terrorist financing is very clear”.
The report was said to have been ordered by the Conservative Government in 2023 after it was revealed that bailouts were subject to widespread fraud during the pandemic.
But the findings, which cast a highly negative light on due diligence practices, were so damaging that authorities reportedly decided to cover them up.
It comes after an independent analysis in December 2025 revealed taxpayers had lost £10.9bn through fraud and error in the fight against the pandemic.
Covid Anti-Fraud Commissioner Tom Hayhoe’s latest report to Parliament found that schemes including Bounce Back Loans and Eat to Help Out were introduced with significant risks of fraud and without early safeguards, costing taxpayers millions.
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It identified poor accountability, poor quality data and weak contracts as the main causes of losses.
The Labor Government has implemented many of the Commissioner’s initial recommendations, including tougher enforcement and specialist fraud recovery teams to track down suspected fraudsters and recover taxpayers’ money.
The UK also had one of the highest aid budgets in the world when the report was compiled, with a commitment to spend 0.7% of gross national income on foreign aid. The Conservatives cut that amount to 0.5% in 2021, citing the economic hit of the pandemic, but Labor has pledged to bring it back to 0.7%.
A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “This Government is taking unprecedented action to tackle fraud in the public sector, saving more than £7.5bn of taxpayers’ money last year through aggressive fraud prevention and correction.
“By using better data and hiring more expert investigators, we are finding and stopping these scams faster than ever before.”
