Video: Labour: Government at fault for £40m Virgin Rail West Coast fiasco The details and length of the agreement are expected to be announced tomorrow and it is thought that Patrick McLoughlin, the Transport Secretary, could use the opportunity to publish the independent report into the abandoned bidding process. "We've got to be careful that we don't just have a Whitehall whitewash into all of this, it seems clear to me there were systemic problems," she said. Pointing to the then Transport Secretary Philip Hammond's decision to cut staff numbers at the department, the Garston and Halewood MP also blamed other Government cost-cutting measures for the bungled operation. "In the past franchise competitions would be audited externally to pick up problems like this, that was not done to save £1m, it has cost at least £40m," she added.