Labour has launched a new war on waste (Image: Getty)
Labour faced fury over spending taxpayer cash at “high end restaurants and casinos” as it announced its new war on waste.
The Cabinet Office will this week order almost all of the 20,000 procurement cards used by civil servants to be frozen.
To regain access to the cards, civil servants will need to reapply and justify why they need them – or they will be cancelled at the end of the month.
The spend on the credit cards jumped from £155 million in 2020-21 to £675 million in 2024-25.
Rachel Reeves is under pressure to slash Government spending (Image: Getty)
But the claimed the proposals were a “bit rich”, adding that Labour has refused to “publish information on its Government credit card spending”.
A Conservative Party spokesman said: “ will always support cutting waste across government, and we will always support measures to stop the frivolous spending of taxpayer money.
“But this is a bit rich coming from the party – Labour – that did nothing to stop spending sprees in which Labour ministers wasted thousands of pounds of taxpayer money at high end restaurants and casinos. It was Conservative government that took the first steps to increase Government Procurement Card transparency and cut nonsense spending.
“So far this Labour government has refused to publish information on its government credit card spending to Parliament and the Deputy Prime Minister has already changed policy to reduce the transparency of her department’s credit card spend. Labour, once again, are all talk and no action.”
Spending on the cards has quadrupled over the last four years. More than £675million was spent on government cards across central departments and agencies in the last financial year – compared to £155million in 2020/21.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden said: “We must ensure taxpayers’ money is spent on improving the lives of working people.
“It’s not right that hundreds of millions of pounds are spent on government credit cards each year, without high levels of scrutiny or challenge. Only officials for whom it is absolutely essential should have a card.
“Our clampdown on government credit cards will deliver savings that can be used to drive our Plan for Change – securing our borders, getting the NHS back on its feet and rebuilding Britain.”
Prime Minister Sir has vowed to fight the “overcautious and flabby” British state.
Cards used by diplomatic staff in unstable environments will be among a small number exempt from the freeze.
The Government expects to reduce the number of civil service credit cards in use by at least 50%.
New spending controls will bring down the maximum spend for hospitality from £2500 to £500, with anything over the new limit requiring approval from the director general.
Civil servants will also be barred from using cards for common goods and services that can be dealt with at scale instead – such as booking official travel, training or buying office supplies.