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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Heather Stewart

Labour attacks ‘obscene’ waste of funds on little-used export helpline

The international trade secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, speaking during an event to launch a free trade deal with Mexico
The international trade secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, hailed the hotline as a ‘fantastic new one-stop shop service’. Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

Labour has accused the government of an obscene waste of money, after it emerged that an export hotline set up to help businesses took fewer than 3,000 calls in its first five months of operation.

The call centre company Hinduja Global Solutions was promised £120,000 a month for running the export support service, on the expectation that the 24 staff involved would be handling 3,000 calls a week.

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