On March 18 Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden announced with great fanfare a bold “crackdown on wasteful spend” by freezing all Government Procurement Cards (GPCs) from that week to free up cash. As promised, Guido’s been keeping tabs on the pen-pushers’ expenses. Spoiler alert: the ‘crackdown’ is going as well as Labour’s mythical ‘bonfire of the quangos’…
In February, before Labour’s supposed war on waste kicked off, the Cabinet Office racked up £144,673.67 on its GPCs. In March that figure soared to a whopping £224,789.78. That’s a 55% jump in spending. Over £5,500 went on hotels alone. Not exactly penny-pinching…
McFadden insisted that GPC holders would need to reapply and justify their spending. Apparently Whitehall’s finest had no trouble passing that test. Business as usual, then…
Andy Haldane, Burnham’s recent adviser on the economy who has not taken up a No10 job, told Andrew Marr on LBC:
“The market now suspects that this is a traditional tax-and-spend socialist government with better TikTok videos…
imposing windfall taxes on oil & gas or on banks or upping capital gains tax would […] repeat the mistake that Rachel made […] The Achilles heel, the fiscal Achilles heel of this government thus far has been its unwillingness and/or inability to cut public spending.”