Guido has been keeping an eye on whether Whitehall’s mandarins have taken any notice of the government’s vaunted ‘crackdown on waste’ after Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden ordered an “immediate freeze” on government procurement cards back in early March. It hasn’t been going well…
In February – before the so-called ‘freeze’ – civil servants in the Home Office and its agencies racked up a tidy £30,062 on taxpayer-funded credit cards. In March, after the freeze was supposedly in effect, spending doubled to £60,460. The spending spree included £820 for the Border Force to have a stand at the Devon County Show to “Publicise Their Work And Engage With The Public”, with another £725 forked out on stamps. McFadden’s memo must have ended up in the bin…
Kemi Badenoch at the 1922-ConHome bash last night:
“I did praise [Burnham] for his stamina, it was amazing. All I had to do was sit back and lie there. I didn’t have to do anything at all…”