With a change of government, you might have thought 4 July would see a lot of new brooms in Whitehall. Yet, for some mandarins, the dissolution of the last parliament seems to have been the cue to get all the paint brushes and toolkits out. Since the end of May, more than £130,000 was spent by eleven departments across Whitehall as officials rushed to refurbish their new ministers’ offices.
A series of written questions by new boy Ashley Fox show that two high-spending departments seemed to welcome Labour’s arrival with particular gusto. The Department of Energy Security greeted Ed Miliband’s return by blowing more than £42,000 – excluding VAT – on a refurbishment including nearly £30,000 worth of new furniture and fittings. In a statement, officials defended this largesse by claiming that ‘the number of Ministers in DESNZ increased by one following the general election, the result of which was a higher than usual spend to facilitate an additional office.’
Next on the spending list was Angela Rayner’s Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Civil servants here spent almost £34,000 on the refurbishment of ministerial office – including more than £16,000 to ‘ensure ministers are able to work outside of London’. Guess all that talk of ‘five offices’ was worth it eh Ange?
Other eye-catching purchases include a new £800 three-seater office sofa for Hilary Benn’s team in the Northern Ireland Office with the Attorney General’s Office spending more than £6,000 on the replacement of carpet tiles alone. Gongs go to the Ministry of Defence and Department of Health as two of the eight departments who spent nothing on refurbs.
Given all the recent headlines about ‘free-gear Keir’, perhaps loyal members of the Starmer army don’t want to look like they’re enjoying the trappings of office too much…
Comments