Quangos are now responsible for almost a third of all government spending, according to the TaxPayers’ Alliance. Some 438 arms-length bodies absorbed £391 billion of taxpayer cash in 2023-24, out of £1.2 trillion state spending overall. Close to half a million pen-pushers are now on the payroll…
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport sponsored 41 quangos last year, more than any other Whitehall department, including the BBC, which took home £5.2 billion. Back in March, Starmer promised a “bonfire of the quangos” and to cut the cost of regulation with what he called an “active government”. Now Reeves insists she wants to slash the number of environment quangos. A reminder: Labour has created 28 new quangos while abolishing just two. Talk about a black hole…
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”