Civil servants splurge on yacht club trip with taxpayer-backed credit card
16 March 2025, 10:37 | Updated: 20 March 2025, 11:09
Civil servants splash out on luxury 'away days', cinema trips and Fortnum & Masons food amid crackdown on taxpayer-backed credit cards - after 'value for money' course.
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Civil servants are facing a "ruthless" crackdown on taxpayer-funded credit cards after it was revealed civil servants are enjoying Caribbean yacht clubs and Fortnum & Masons goods.
Foreign Office staff enjoyed the Nassau Yacht Club, in January 2023, spending £920, according to records acquired by The Telegraph.
In December, Angela Rayner's housing department spent £609 to hire a meeting room at a nearby city farm.
In the same month, the Foreign Office spent nearly £11,000 at John Lewis and £1,300 at Fortnum & Masons.
This comes as Pat McFadden, Cabinet Office minister, is expected to announce an "urgent review" into Whitehall's use of taxpayer-backed credit cards.
Mr McFadden is expected to limit who can use the cards and restrict the goods and services that can be purchased.
In July 2024, McFadden's own office booked a £1,820 course to learn about "value for money".
Weeks after the Prison and Probation Service spent £814 at "Chips Isle of Wight" which sells retro computer games.
In August, the Department of Education spent £7,230 at the hotel chain Marriott on a civil servant "away day".
David Lammy's Foreign Office spent £650 at Milton's Chandeliers, a specialist chandelier firm, and £4,100 on a swimming pool cleaning service.
In 2022, the department spent £673 on a website selling life-size celebrity cardboard cut outs - including singer Harry Styles.
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A Labour source told The Telegraph: "We will not allow taxpayers’ money to be frittered away in this irresponsible way.
"We will be ruthless in tackling the waste to which the Tories turned a blind eye, so we can prioritise cash on more hospital appointments, teachers in classrooms and police back on the beat.
"To get a grip on the problem, Pat McFadden has ordered an urgent review of who has access to these government credit cards and what they can be used to purchase. We will set out more action in the coming weeks."
The taxpayer-backed credit card spend has been happening for years, records show.
In 2023, the Foreign Office spent £965 in a bowling club in Toronto, Canada, followed by £2,900 at an art deco cinema in Wellington, New Zealand.
In November 2022, the department spent £684 at a activity company offering axe-throwing and clay pigeon shooting in the Lake District.
A Government spokesman told the newspaper: “We are fully focused on tackling wasteful spending and inefficiency across government.
“That’s why we are carrying out huge reforms to create an agile and productive state. We are fundamentally changing the way public services, civil servants and the UK deliver for the public, building on the first eight months of the Government’s agenda.”
It is understood that overseas Foreign Office civil servants sometimes use government credit cards to host political leaders to promote Britain.
