John Kerry, the US climate envoy, said
that America and China had “no short-
age of differences” on climate change
but agreed that “co-operation is the only
way”. He added: “This is not a discre-
tionary thing, frankly, this is science, it’s
maths and physics that dictate the road
that we have to travel.”
Xie Zhenhua, his Chinese counter-
part, said: “Climate change is becoming
Continued on page 2, col 5James Hurley, Alex Ralph
George Greenwood
Hamzah Khalique-Loonat
Three MPs have been accused by the
defence secretary of disrespecting the
armed forces by getting drunk on a
flight to visit troops in Gibraltar.
Ben Wallace is writing to Labour and
the SNP to express his “disappoint-
ment” about the behaviour of the MPs,
who he said had “put military personnel
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Like Malala
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Thursday November 11 2021 | thetimes.co.uk | No 73626Post-pandemic brain fog
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INSIDE
TIMES
Dressing-down for MPs ‘who got drunk’ on flight to visit troops
Larisa Brown Defence Editor in a difficult position”. A Labour MP,
whom The Times is not naming, was said
to have been “incapacitated through
drink” to the point that she had to be
helped from Gibraltar airport in a
wheelchair, according to a report
circulated in the Ministry of Defence.
She was taken to her hotel and did not
attend a welcome event put on by the
military. She was understood to be re-
turning to Britain last night, two days
early, after speaking to Labour whips.
The report said that the female MP
was with two SNP MPs, David Linden,
31, and Drew Hendry, 57, who were “dif-
ficult” with customs and testing staff at
the airport on Tuesday night. They were
part of a group of 15 MPs visiting Gibral-
tar for a three-day trip over Armistice
Day with the all-party parliamentarygroup for the armed forces. James Gray,
a Tory MP who chairs the group, said:
“These three, as I understand it, were in
a BA lounge in Heathrow and made full
use of the facilities.” A major and a re-
tired lieutenant colonel were said to
have been on the flight as “minders” and
saw the MPs drinking. Wallace said:
“This type of behaviour shows a lack of
respect for the enduring work of ourarmed forces... [and] puts military
personnel in a difficult position.”
The Labour MP declined to com-
ment. An SNP spokesman said: “These
suggestions are inaccurate. Drew
Hendry MP and David Linden MP were
honoured to be invited to this important
event and attended all engagements,
including the welcome meeting and
dinner shortly after landing.”Hundreds of companies set up after the
government’s furlough scheme was es-
tablished claimed up to £26.6 million
from the taxpayer, The Times has learnt.
Many of these claims were made by
“off-the-shelf” companies that can be
established cheaply and with opaque
corporate structures.
The use of such companies to claim
emergency pandemic funds is likely to
be scrutinised by a new team at
HM Revenue & Customs who have
been ordered to recover £1 billion in
fraudulent or mistaken claims.
Analysis by The Times using official
data shows that 7,000 companies regis-
tered to only five addresses in London
made claims to the furlough scheme
between last December and June. Over
that period they claimed up to £473 mil-
lion between them. About 340 of them
were created on or after March 1 last
year, when the furlough scheme began.
Three of the addresses most commonly
used are linked to “formation agents”,
services that set up and administer com-
panies on behalf of directors.
They can help individuals and busi-
nesses to establish complex corporate
structures and have been linked to or-
ganised crime and money laundering.
One of the attractions to fraudsters is
Your gong The Prince of Wales gave Sir Elton John his Companion of Honour insignia at Windsor Castle yesterday. The
order, established by George V in 1917 to recognise outstanding achievement, is limited to 65 members. Full story, page 5The United States and China put aside
diplomatic differences yesterday and
pledged to take “enhanced” action to
curb global warming in the next decade.
In an unusual joint declaration issued
in Glasgow, the world’s two largest emit-
ters agreed to co-operate in limiting
global temperature rises to 1.5C.
They pledged to take specific meas-
ures to cut methane emissions over the
next ten years and enforce bans on im-
ports linked to illegal deforestation.
China repeated a promise to “phase
down coal consumption” from 2026 but
added that it would “make best efforts to
accelerate this work”. The countries alsoAARON CHOWN/PAUS and China vow to limit warming together
Oliver Wright Policy Editor
Ben Webster Environment EditorFraud fears
over firms’
furlough
millions
Hundreds of companies set up after scheme
began and registered to just five addresses
that they allow them to obtain prestig-
ious addresses and company names
that sound credible, which can make
victims more likely to trust them.
Under the furlough programme, offi-
cially known as the coronavirus job re-
tention scheme, the state helped to pay
the wages for 11.7 million jobs, about a
third of the UK workforce. The scheme,
which helped to protect livelihoods,
cost £69 billion and closed at the end of
September. Estimates by HMRC sug-
gest that more than £6 billion has been
lost in fraud and error.
David Clarke, chairman of the Fraud
Advisory Panel charity and a former
police chief who led the National Fraud
Intelligence Bureau, said: “With such
huge sums and so many warning signs,
it shows how easy it is for thieves to cir-
cumvent controls. If we don’t sort this
and more emergency cash has to go
out, it will be like Robin Hood stealing
millions from honest taxpayers and
giving it to a rich gang of thieves.”
The National Crime Agency, which
co-ordinates efforts to prevent fraud,
has been working with the Treasury to
“drive down the risks” associated with
the company formations industry.
However, there are legitimate rea-
sons to use a formation agent, and
many of the furlough claims emanating
from them are likely to be above board.
There is likely to be particular concern
Continued on page 2, col 3committed themselves to “work co-op-
eratively” at Cop26 to persuade other
countries to sign up to a package to
speed up carbon-reduction pledges.
The joint declaration comes despite a
background of deep political mistrust
between the two governments that had
threatened to spill over into Glasgow.
Only last week President Biden criti-
cised President Xi for “not turning up” at
the UN conference. The UK govern-
ment hopes that the rapprochement will
put pressure on other countries, such as
Saudi Arabia, which have been seeking
to limit the ambition of the final summit
communiqué. Yesterday Boris Johnson
said that people would find it “absolutely
incomprehensible” if world leaders
“stood in the way” of an ambitious deal.y(7HB7E2*OTSKOM( |||+&!\