Labour’s Government credit card reckoning: Time for Starmer to put his money where his mouth is

18 March 2025, 13:24 | Updated: 18 March 2025, 14:37

Labour once thundered from the opposition benches about the reckless use of Government Procurement Cards (GPCs) under the last Conservative government.

The Tories painted themselves as the guardians of fiscal responsibility, but the credit card bill sullied that image. Now, in government, it seems the rod Labour made for their own back is hitting them hard.

With welcome urgency, ministers are now cancelling thousands of government credit cards.

GPCs were originally introduced in 1997 as a way to simplify minor government purchases. In reality, they’ve become an open bar at the taxpayer’s expense.

Civil servants have been caught splashing thousands of pounds on 5-star hotels, Whole Foods groceries, yacht clubs, escape room away days and even Nespresso coffee pods to, of course, ensure that their taxpayer-funded coffee meets the correct standard.

Meanwhile, most Britons are tightening their belts.

Before taking power, Labour had no shortage of righteous fury over Tory GPC abuses, digging up receipts and condemning every last overpriced pastry.

But now? The spending spree has continued under their watch, and the only thing that has changed is the party in charge.

In fact, GPC spending has more than quadrupled in the last five years, from £155 million in 2020/21 to £675 million in 2024/25.

It has made Labour’s opposition strategy look like little more than a campaign stunt, an act of political pantomime dressed up as moral outrage.

So, this crackdown is welcome, but taxpayers will take time to be convinced. A similar overhaul was promised in 2012 when ministers claimed that civil servants were serious about helping drive out waste at the heart of government.

Yet here we are, more than a decade later, still asking civil servants to take waste seriously and get a grip on expenditure.

Labour promised to clean up Whitehall’s spending habits. Instead, they have just picked up where the Tories left off, with civil servants sipping on taxpayer-funded flat whites while preaching about fiscal discipline.

If they are serious about tackling waste, they need more than empty words.

A press release won’t be enough.

They need to put their money where their mouth is.

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Joanna Marchong is the investigations campaign manager for the TaxPayers' Alliance

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