In a week where civil servants joined the latest wave of strike action, Guido can reveal that just two Whitehall departments, Transport and Education, spent a combined £300,000 on taxis in 2022 alone. The figures, acquired through two FoI requests, add to prior calculations that found Whitehall wonks had spaffed £10,000,000 on taxis over three years. In good news for civil service efficiency, it only took them four times longer than the required 20 working days to respond…

The Department for Education were the worse offenders of the two. Despite having half the headcount of Transport, they spent five times as much on taxis – with a grand total of £258,668 in 2022-23. Transport spent £47,795.

The FoI requests also contained data on other expenses over 2021 and 2022: DfT spent £20,500 on eye care expenses and £650 on formal dress hire whilst Education spent £950 on honours ceremonies and garden parties. Total expenses for both departments over two years add to over £6,200,000. With such generous expenses, working arrangements, pay and pensions, it’s almost like civil service strike action is politically motivated…

Tory-led Broadland District Council have left the taxpayer more than £30,000 out of pocket after splashing out on seven Queen’s corgi statues and selling them for just a tenth of their original price. Having forked out £21,000 on the wicker pups – plus £11,635.80 on a “prestigious party in the park” for the jubilee and another £1,080 on repairs – the council shifted just four of the statues for a grand total of just £2,140. The prestigious party in the park, meanwhile, was attended by 360 people. Broadland has a population of 125,000…

Locals are now £31,575 out of pocket. Contributing to a council tax hike of 4.62% this year…

After a Canadian TikToker went viral for mistakenly saying Wales was in England, Mark Drakeford reacted as any spend-happy politician with a desire for positive publicity would. He arranged for her to take a holiday to Wales – all on the taxpayer’s expense…

An FOI request from the Taxpayers’ Alliance revealed the Welsh government budgeted £1,500 for the influencer’s trip, based on the justification it would “raise Wales’ profile across the world” and “celebrate the partnership” between Wales and Canada. It’s not the first time Mark’s spaffed the cash chasing viral hits…

The big day’s come – the one you’ve all been waiting for. It’s the release of Labour’s much-trailed ‘GPC Files’, which Guido managed to spike last Friday. Apologies to the Labour press office…

This morning Labour’s all over the airwaves promoting the ‘dossier’, though only the Guardian bothered to splash it. There are, to be fair, some good revelations of absurd government waste by departments; including £1,903 for a ‘Hot Pink Photo Booth’, £14,957 on luxury flowers and just under £500,000 on home furnishings. Guido welcomes the Taxpayers’ Alliance-style investigation after years of covering examples of such waste himself – we are hiring if anyone at Labour Press is interested…

The only problem is the hypocrisy of the messengers. Angela Rayner was out on the radio this morning and was confronted about her expensing two sets of luxury Apple AirPods Pro, after she lost the first pair. She also spent £1,619.00 on an Apple computer and put a smashed phone screen repair on the public credit card. No one’s saying MPs don’t need headphones and computers – much the same way civil servants obviously need hotel rooms. Whether they need to be uber-expensive Apple products/5* hotels is the exact point Labour’s making on waste…

Rachel Reeves, on the other hand, actually had her official expenses credit card suspended in 2015 after ” failing to show spending was valid”. At the time IPSA suspended her expenses card, she owed over £4,000. Shadow education minister Toby Perkins also had his card suspended while owing almost £700.

Emily Thornberry was the Shadow Minister responsible for creating this dossier, asking 350+ written questions to force the information from the government. At around £150 per written question in time and administrative costs, she spent £52,500 asking about government waste. One of her questions was about a hotel stay by Rishi and his Treasury team in Venice – information already publicly available thanks to a 2022 Guido article. Wasting taxpayer cash to ask a question about wasting taxpayer cash…

Does anyone really believe that the Labour Party will be any more frugal and careful with taxpayers’ money? It is just not in their DNA.

As Labour have begun their anti-waste GPC files offensive, they could have put more thought into who they wheeled out to lead the charge. On BBC News this morning, Angela Rayner was taken to task for her own taxpayer funded exuberance. She claimed £2,100 for luxury Apple gear, including personalised engraved* AirPods.

Rayner’s defence was that tech was necessary for her job – she was using her taxpayer-funded iPad for the interview – and that it had gotten good use. She claimed “most people see that as value for money”. Most people might also be aware that Angela could just have easily bought refurbished Apple tech for a fraction of the price. Whilst Rayner was using the iPad for the interview, Guido notes that, again, her AirPods weren’t in use for work purposes.

When pressed further on the need for Apple goods specifically, as opposed to less expensive alternatives, she gave the less convincing defence that “all of the equipment has to sync with each other so that I can carry out my work”. Bluetooth headphones can connect to all bluetooth compatible devices, including Apple devices.

*Despite the engraving she still managed to lose them and stick the taxpayer with a bill for a second pair. Which she wasn’t using in her interviews today…

Following Guido pointing out that Emily Thornberry has spent over £50,000 of taxpayers’ cash asking ministers 350 questions about their spending, it seems the government has wised up to Labour’s ruse. The latest answer to one of Lady Nugee’s questions, courtesy of the Cabinet Office, cites Labour’s historic government spending on civil service refreshment. Thornberry asked:

“what items were purchased from Majestic Wine on 14 August 2019; and for what purpose were they required?”

Here’s Alex Burghart’s reply…

“As has been the case under successive Administrations, refreshments are allowed to be purchased for use at official government functions held for external guests. Due to the passage of almost four years since the transactions were made, the itemised information requested is not held.

Given the Rt Hon Member’s personal interest in Majestic Wine, I would also point her to examples of such routine spending from the last Labour Government, as evident from the £2,430 bills of 19 January 2009, Official Report, Col. 1089W; the £8,286 bill of 24 February 2009, Official Report, Col. 707W; and the £6,614 bills revealed at 13 September 2011, Official Report, Col. 1093W.”

It turns out that trailing a big exclusive investigation four days before publication opens you up to this sort of counterattack…