Prescott budget boost slammed

Updated 15.16 Tue Feb 20 2007

Keywords: budget, John Prescott, Deputy Prime Minister

Tories have described the 30 per cent budget increase for John Prescott's department as "scandalous".

There has been criticism of the scale of funding for the Deputy Prime Minister's Office since he was stripped of most of his powers in a reshuffle last May.

A DPMO spokesman insisted the budget change was merely a "technicality"

Mr Prescott's department will receive an extra £587,000 to support him in carrying out his "ministerial responsibilities". But Tories attacked the increase as a waste of money on a "vanity post".

The boost, announced in the Government's Spring Supplementary Estimates for 2006-7, means £487,000 will be diverted to the DPMO from the Cabinet Office budget and £100,000 from the Department of Communities and Local Government.

Overall Whitehall spending will not increase as a result of the move, according to the Treasury.

Shadow Cabinet Office secretary Oliver Heald said: "At a time when savage NHS cuts are being imposed by Gordon Brown, spending £3 million on a vanity post and vanity department is a scandalous waste of time and money."

He added: "Under Labour, taxes have gone up and up, but all this taxpayers' money is going down the drain.

"Pensioners struggling to pay their soaring council tax bills will find it obscene that Tony Blair has effectively given John Prescott a 30 per cent bonus, despite the fact he provides no value whatsoever to the good governance of our nation."

A DPMO spokesman insisted the budget change was merely a "technicality".

"The DPMO is not spending any extra money and the increase in the Spring Supplementary represents a technical accounting change," he said.

Parliament will be asked to approve the estimates, which will raise the DPMO's 2006-7 budget from £1,960,000 to £2,547,000.