A Norfolk peer, who quit his government role over its handling of coronavirus loans, has slammed the Treasury's anti-fraud efforts as a "Dad's Army" operation.

Lord Agnew of Oulton - founder of the Norfolk-based Inspiration Trust group of academy schools - quit his role as Treasury and Cabinet Office minister for efficiency and transformation in January.

He resigned partly in protest at the handling of the government's £47bn Bounce Back Loans scheme, criticising “schoolboy” handling of Covid business loans.

Last week he said a "pandemic of fraud" meant company directors were able to buy sports cars using government loans meant to support businesses through the Covid pandemic.

Appearing before the Treasury Select Committee on Wednesday (March 9), he said it was “happy days if you were a crook” at the start of the pandemic.

He said: "I believe very strongly that the taxpayer deserves that the government should use their money wisely and an issue like the management of countering fraud is a cross-party issue.

“I don’t think there is anybody who would condone a weak system which allows money to fall into the laps of crooks, and that’s what I saw happening.

“In any of these situations you try and bring about change from inside the tent but you get to a point where that just doesn’t seem to be working.”

It comes two months after the Treasury confirmed that it had written off £4.3bn worth of the £5.8bn of fraud witnessed across its Covid business loan schemes.

The ex-minister said he stepped down from his role after deciding he could not defend actions in regards to bounce back loans for smaller firms, where the Treasury reported £4.9bn worth of fraud.

He told the committee: “Intellectually and at the top policy level, I believe it was an important intervention – we had to get the money out quickly to legitimate businesses and give them the support they needed.

“But on the fraud side, it was just a Dad’s Army operation.

"It was happy days if you were a crook in those first few months."

Following his resignation, prime minister Boris Johnson's official spokesman said: "We’ve always been clear fraud is unacceptable and are taking action against those abusing the system."