Labour launches warfare on waste – however faces fury over a few of its personal spending | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Labour confronted fury over spending taxpayer money at “high end restaurants and casinos” because it introduced its new warfare on waste.

The Cabinet Office will this week order virtually the entire 20,000 procurement playing cards utilized by civil servants to be frozen.

To regain entry to the playing cards, civil servants might want to reapply and justify why they want them – or they are going to be cancelled on the finish of the month.

The spend on the bank cards jumped from £155 million in 2020-21 to £675 million in 2024-25.

But the Tories claimed the proposals have been a “bit rich”, including that Labour has refused to “publish information on its Government credit card spending”.

A Conservative Party spokesman mentioned: “Conservatives will always support cutting waste across government, and we will always support measures to stop the frivolous spending of taxpayer money.

“But this is a bit rich coming from the party – Labour – that did nothing to stop spending sprees in which Labour ministers wasted thousands of pounds of taxpayer money at high end restaurants and casinos. It was Conservative government that took the first steps to increase Government Procurement Card transparency and cut nonsense spending.

“So far this Labour government has refused to publish information on its government credit card spending to Parliament and the Deputy Prime Minister has already changed policy to reduce the transparency of her department’s credit card spend. Labour, once again, are all talk and no action.”

Spending on the playing cards has quadrupled over the past 4 years. More than £675million was spent on authorities playing cards throughout central departments and companies within the final monetary yr – in comparison with £155million in 2020/21.

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden mentioned: “We must ensure taxpayers’ money is spent on improving the lives of working people.

“It’s not right that hundreds of millions of pounds are spent on government credit cards each year, without high levels of scrutiny or challenge. Only officials for whom it is absolutely essential should have a card.

“Our clampdown on government credit cards will deliver savings that can be used to drive our Plan for Change – securing our borders, getting the NHS back on its feet and rebuilding Britain.”

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to struggle the “overcautious and flabby” British state.

Cards utilized by diplomatic employees in unstable environments will likely be amongst a small quantity exempt from the freeze.

The Government expects to scale back the variety of civil service bank cards in use by at the very least 50%.

New spending controls will convey down the utmost spend for hospitality from £2500 to £500, with something over the brand new restrict requiring approval from the director basic.

Civil servants may even be barred from utilizing playing cards for widespread items and companies that may be handled at scale as a substitute – reminiscent of reserving official journey, coaching or shopping for workplace provides.