Cabinet minsters raided £326m cash pot for armed forces’ charities to makeup for shortfalls in their budget
In 2012 ex-Chancellor George Osborne said the £973m fines on banks would go to 'Armed Force and Emergency Services charities'
CABINET ministers have secretly raided £326million from a pot for forces charities to plug shortfalls in their own budgets, The Sun can reveal.
The huge sum has been taken from the Libor fund and used to bail out what should be routine state spending.
In 2012, ex-Chancellor George Osborne announced that the £973m of fines levied on sinning banks for scandals - such as fixing the Libor lending rate - would be distributed to “Armed Forces and Emergency Services charities”.
But an in-depth investigation by The Sun has revealed ministers from the Treasury, MoD and Department for Education have repeatedly raided a third from the jumbo pot over the last five years.
Depriving cash-strapped charities of the badly needed money, they have instead used it to fulfill their own taxpayer-funded responsibilities.
They include improving Army barracks, installing sports facilities on military bases, funding wounded vets’ rehab centres, buying air ambulances and even maintaining cadet troops.
Forces charities told of their fury last night at The Sun’s revelations, with Help For Heroes branding the underhand top ups “a disgrace”.
MPs from across the political divide were also enraged and pledged to launch their own probe into the scandal, with one senior Tory branding it “almost criminal”.
Our investigation also discovered many household name charities only ended up receiving just a tiny fraction of the now empty Libor pot – despite them being the original intended recipients.
Help For Heroes was given just £7.1m in grants – less than 1 per cent of the whole Libor pot.
A huge chunk of the sum quietly pilfered by ministers - £200m - was claimed by education ministers to spend on creating thousands of new apprenticeships.
But in its own investigation last year, the National Audit Office failed to find any evidence that’s what actually happened.
Instead, the watchdog has deep suspicions that it was used to prop up general spending on schools.
Help for Heroes Chief Executive Mel Waters said last night: “Every month over 200 men and women are medically discharged from our Armed Forces, but it’s getting harder to raise money to help them rebuild their lives and become a force for good once more.
“It is extraordinary that this money has been used to top-up Government departments and other budgets when it could have done so much for our wounded Servicemen and Servicewomen.
“It is a disgrace that our brave Servicemen and Servicewomen are having to go cap-in-hand to bid for money for really basic needs.”
Campaigning Tory MP and Commons defence committee member Johnny Mercer said: “The amount that has been wasted here is almost criminal.
"A strategic opportunity has been lost, and I feel very bitter about it.
“This is vital public money, that George Osborne specifically targeted at a certain group who have served this country, not to bail out budgets elsewhere.”
Former Army officer Mr Mercer added: “I am going to ask the defence committee if we can conduct a full inquiry into what happened to the Libor fund”.
Unveiling the fund in 2012, George Osborne announced: “The proceeds from LIBOR fines would be used to support Armed Forces and Emergency Services charities”.
But the initial pledge was later expanded in October 2014 to include “and other related good causes”.
It is believed Treasury ministers wrote in the new caveat to allow the fund to be raided by other government ministers.
Only £792million in grants from the Libor pot has been publicly declared so far, so the final figure syphoned off by ministers could be far higher.
The Treasury is still refusing to publish a full list of where close to £1bn in the fines has gone.
Labour’s Shadow Defence Secretary Nia Griffith branded The Sun’s revelations as “a total betrayal of the veterans and personnel who were promised that they would benefit from these funds”.
Amputee 'pay' call
BRITIAN’S first triple amputee from the Afghan conflict, Mark Ormrod, had to raise £140,000 himself for a new set of artificial limbs in the US.Mark, 33, lost both legs and his right arm when he stepped on a Taliban landmine on Christmas Eve, 2007.
The former Royal Marine commando last night called on ministers to give the missing £300m back to forces charities.
Mark told The Sun the missing Libor cash is “a hell of a lot of money that could have helped a hell of a lot of people”.
The Afghanistan hero added: “There are lots of guys who are still in need still, who are more severely injured than me.
“They will need carers and physio treatment for the rest of their lives, and all of them have to come up with funds to pay for that.
“I’d like to see the government reimburse all those charities that have missed out.”
Mark added: “Isn’t it ironic. This is money taken from those who did wrong which was earmarked for those who tried to do right, and has now been misspent again”.
Ms Griffith added: “We know that the defence budget is in a complete mess, but this does not justify
Ministers plundering money that was meant for charity to plug gaps in the MoD’s books.
“I will be writing to the Defence Secretary to demand an urgent explanation of why this has happened and a guarantee that this scandal will not be repeated.”
A landmark study by King’s College London recently revealed 83,000 troops have been afflicted by a physical or mental injury in wars over the last quarter of a century, from the First Gulf War to ongoing operations in Iraq.
And up to 57,000 partners and children of former troops will also have developed mental health issues because of their loved one’s service, the study also found.
Many of those thousands need ongoing and expensive help for the rest of their lives.
With government resources dwindling, the burden has fallen to charities who face being overrun by the huge need.
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When confronted by The Sun last night, the Treasury would not deny that hundreds of millions in Libor fines had failed to go to charities, but insisted that all the cash had been intended for "worthy causes".
A Treasury spokesman said: “Money given to Departments since 2012 from these fines is ring fenced to be spent on worthy causes.
“Funding for centres and facilities is consistent with supporting good causes and making a difference to the Armed Forces community.”
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