A “lavish spending” culture in Whitehall has seen taxpayers’ money wasted on luxury items, Labour claimed, after an analysis of the use of government procurement cards (GPCs). Labour raised concern about dining and alcohol purchases, including almost £345,000 by Foreign Office (FCDO) officials in 2021 under the heading “restaurants and bars”, entertainment and evidence of end-of-year spending sprees to use up budgets.
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said the investigation into the use of GPCs revealed a “scandalous catalogue of waste”. The party has compiled a dossier on the use of the cards which showed that across 2021 for 14 major Whitehall departments, a total of at least £145.5 million was spent using GPCs. That figure was up from £84.9 million in 2010/11 in the equivalent departments, although around £20 million of the difference could be explained through inflation.
The dossier showed:
