The Cabinet Office has spent £4,584.12 on branded merchandise since Pat McFadden supposedly banned such ‘wasteful spending’ in April 2025. There are already plenty of mugs in Whitehall…
Pat McFadden specifically targeted branded mugs, jumpers, water bottles and fidget cubes as the kind of junk that taxpayers should no longer have to cough up for. Merchandise would be allowed only where ‘essential’ to the government’s agenda. Which should have been a warning sign anyway…
Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Mike Wood asked what the department has spent since the potemkin ban. Mark Ferguson’s answer covers everything from 24 April 2025:
Admittedly there have been two Chancellors of the Duchy of Lancaster since McFadden’s edict. Have they forgotten it exists?
Former Treasury minister and adviser to Burnham in the Makerfield campaign Lord Jim O’Neill, who has turned down a role in his government, said Burnham’s first statement Commons was:
“The last thing investors wanted to hear… gilt yields have risen by a 0.25% in one day, which is a lot. We’ve not had that since Liz Truss days… If your country is under the focus of ‘can they come up with a sensible fiscal strategy’ on a day when the markets think ‘well no, you’re not showing any sign of it’ you’re going to have a tough day…if it stays like this your mortgage rate is going up.”