What Labour's credit card crackdown says about its public spending approach

The dour Scotsman holding the title of chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Cabinet Office minister, Pat McFadden, doesn’t seem much of a space cowboy but he has in common with Elon Musk an apparent zeal to eliminate waste.

- SEAN O'GRADY

Being more sensible and considerably less excitable than his (rough) US counterpart, McFadden has not yet egregiously breached the British constitution but he has summarily abolished almost all of the civil service “credit cards”, a distinctly Doge-like action. It’s more than just a symbolic move…

What’s the problem?

The immediate one is the sometimes seemingly wanton use of some 20,000 government procurement cards (GPCs) that enable officials to order relatively trivial items – ie not new aircraft carriers or reservoirs – without too much onerous invoicing and other paperwork in the digital age. Typically this means paying for ad hoc official hospitality, travel and office equipment. However, Labour in opposition discovered some expenditure that seemed questionable. This included:

• A £4,445 dinner in New York for the then prime minister, Boris Johnson, for himself and 24 of his staff

• About £1,500 on lunch and dinner for Liz Truss, as foreign secretary, in two upmarket restaurants in Jakarta

• Rishi Sunak, when chancellor, spending £3,000 on 13 photographs to brighten up the Treasury