It wasn’t difficult to guess the mood of the civil service on welcoming their new left-wing overlords. They rolled out the red carpet…
The renamed Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (formerly DLUHC) internal news page has plastered on its front a blog post all about Rayner’s entry as Secretary of State, breathlessly titled “Come Rayner, Come Shine” – her words in the all staff call. Was the mask ever on for it to slip off?
There’s an interesting inter-Whitehall competition shaping up to produce the most fawning welcome video for Labour’s new ministers. Wes Streeting’s shows him sweeping up to the Department for Health and Social Care in his new ministerial car…
Welcome Secretary of State for Health and Social Care @WesStreeting.
We look forward to helping you deliver the government’s mission to build an NHS fit for the future. pic.twitter.com/WN02CJZaBf
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) July 5, 2024
Meanwhile, Angela Rayner includes shots of her being taken on a tour of the department by its permanent secretary, culminating in her being presented with a portrait of herself on the wall – which seems to leave her slightly stunned. Impartial…
Welcome to the Deputy Prime Minister and our Secretary of State @AngelaRayner pic.twitter.com/XsYC2YnRYT
— Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (@luhc) July 5, 2024
David Lammy is also off the mark with a homiletic video introducing his foreign policy priorities. Don’t remember Tory ministers being given this treatment…
One topic that’s been brought up during this election campaign is the amount of Whitehall waste. The government has attempted to crack down on the blob’s woke DEI agenda, whilst Reform have pledged to “slash government waste”. Though taxpayers have been bankrolling more than just rainbow lanyards and struggle sessions for our pen-pushers…
Guido has been given data uncovered by the Taxpayers’ Alliance revealing that in 2023 alone, the Ministry of Defence splurged an eye-watering £981,260 on business class travel for top civil servants. That’s a staggering 265 luxury trips for the bureaucrats. Looks like it’s not just the budget that’s flying high. Meanwhile, Home Secretary James Cleverly opted for a more frugal route, forgoing plush travel for the humble confines of Wizz Air on a recent trip to Lampedusa earlier this year…
It pays to serve the civil service. Immigration Enforcement civil servants were today treated to an event rewarding long service at the Hurlingham Club, the Fulham-based country club known as “one of the most exclusive in the world“. What better way to reward good conduct in the office than a taxpayer-funded jolly in a London neo-classical mansion…
One can’t buy membership – the only way to get in is to be born to a current member – though rooms can be hired for events. One of the two the civil servants used for their jolly, the Quadrangle, costs from £4,800 just to gain access. At least someone knows how to stop people getting across borders…
UPDATE: Guido is told the Napier Room costs at least £12,000 for a day. So that’s a total hire bill of £16,800…
If civil servants working from home weren’t costing the taxpayer enough already, HMRC staff who are cosily working from home have managed to lose a whopping £1 million worth of phones and laptops in just three years. Last year’s figures reveal that these home-working heroes lost around 10 mobile phones and two laptops every single week…
In the same time, our diligent tax collectors also reported 95 phones, 562 laptops, and one memory device as stolen. If sensitive information being nicked doesn’t raise enough alarm bells to make officials rethink the shirking from home trend, what will…
Senior Department of Business and Trade officials managed to spend a whopping £82,625 on 14 trips, including business, first, and premium economy class travel. Just one return flight to Osaka, Japan cost the British taxpayer £10,629…
According to research supplied to Guido by the TaxPayers’ Alliance, ten DBT officials spent an eye-watering £73,369 on bougie flights while their accommodation cost £8,647 between September and December last year. Joanna Marchong of the TPA hits the nail on the head: “Taxpayers will want these business class bureaucrats to be brought back down to earth.” Meanwhile, the Home Secretary took the cattle-class option on Wizz Air to Lampedusa last month…
