This is among many more shocking expenditures.
According to Labour, the Tory government has a “lavish spending” culture that has seen taxpayers’ money spent on luxury items.
This is based on an examination of the usage of government procurement cards (GPCs).
The Foreign Office (FCDO) officials spending over £345,000 in restaurant and bar expenditures in 2021, as well as evidence of end-of-year spending binges to exhaust budgets were among the issues brought up by Labour.
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said the investigation into the use of GPCs revealed a “scandalous catalogue of waste”.
The Office of Value for Money would be established by Labour as a new regulator to keep an eye on civil service spending, Rayner continued.
The use of five-star hotels, pricey restaurants, opulent furniture, costly getaways, and the purchase of alcohol using government procurement cards are just a few examples of the excessive spending revealed in the Labour dossier (GPCs).
The Treasury, then led by Rishi Sunak, spent £3,217 on rooms at the five-star Hotel Danieli in Venice for the then-chancellor and 11 other officials for a G20 summit in 2021.
This is among many more shocking expenditures.
In 2021, Rishi Sunak’s Treasury spent £3,393 buying 13 works of fine art photography from The Tate Gallery despite having access to the government’s already extensive collection.
The Foreign Office claimed hundreds of pounds worth of wine as “computer equipment” while spending £7,218 on a reception for Liz Truss, the then-foreign secretary, in front of a Sydney Harbour amusement park in early 2022.
In November 2021, while on an official visit to Indonesia, Liz Truss and her group spent an additional £1,443 on lunch and supper at two Jakarta restaurants.
The information was obtained via an investigation by Labour of both official government data and a series of parliamentary inquiries; Sir Keir Starmer’s party plans to release the whole dossier on Monday.
Angela Rayner said: “Whether as chancellor or prime minister, Rishi Sunak has failed to rein in the culture of lavish spending across Whitehall on his watch.”
“Today’s shocking revelations lift the lid on a scandalous catalogue of waste, with taxpayers’ money frittered away across every part of the government, while in the rest of the country, families are sick with worry about whether their pay cheque will cover their next weekly shop or the next tranche of bills.”
The rules on government procurement cards were heavily relaxed at the start of the Covid pandemic, allowing cardholders to spend up to £20,000 per transaction and £100,000 per month.
At the beginning of the Covid pandemic, the regulations governing government procurement cards were greatly loosened, enabling cardholders to spend up to £20,000 per transaction and £100,000 each month.
According to Labour, 14 departments spent at least £145.5 million on procurement cards in 2021, up from £84.9 million in 2010–11.
Along with the rise in “extravagant” spending, the opposition called attention to “loose controls” on debit card usage and occasionally false claims about what the money is being spent on.
The Foreign Office data showed the purchase of thousands of pounds worth of English sparkling wine under categories including “computer equipment” and “industry supplies,” which Labour discovered to be bogus spending descriptions.
Labour’s shadow attorney general, Emily Thornberry, slammed the government for “shameless waste and flagrant excess.”
She said it “would not be the case if you went by the government expenditure shown in this study”.
According to Labour, the special debit cards had also been used to pay for five-star hotels while ministers were travelling abroad and “living the high life.”
Large quantities of money were spent on domestic travel, according to the dossier.
When then-chancellor Rishi Sunak gave a speech at Cop26 in Glasgow, the Treasury paid a £3,600 chauffeur service, saying there were no government cars available, for ministers and officials in attendance.
In response to the Labour dossier, a senior Conservative source stated that Labour had “forgotten that they introduced these “civil servant credit cards in 1997” and that by 2010, they had spent “nearly £1 billion of taxpayers’ money on everything from dinners at Mr Chu’s Chinese restaurant to luxury five-star hotels”.
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