The breathtaking audacity of the civil service knows no bounds. The latest revelations of their reckless, out-of-control spending are nothing short of a national disgrace — a slap in the face to every hardworking taxpayer who funds their luxurious habits. These bureaucrats, dripping in entitlement, have racked up a staggering £675 million bill for 2024/25 on the backs of the very people they claim to serve.

And what have they squandered our money on? Not on frontline services, not on making Britain stronger, not on supporting the people who struggle under the weight of ever-increasing taxes. No, they’ve blown it on luxury dining, yacht clubs, crystal glassware, celebrity cardboard cut-outs, and team-building jollies.

This scandal is not the fault of just one party. The Conservatives allowed it to spiral out of control, and Labour — despite its empty rhetoric — has shown itself just as complicit.

The only reason Labour is taking any action now is because the shocking scale of the spending has been exposed.

Otherwise, they would have continued sweeping it under the rug — just as they did when they refused to publish details of their own government credit card splurge.

It speaks volumes about their priorities. This is a government happy to spend £11.6 billion on green foreign aid while claiming there’s a £22 billion black hole in our finances. A government that allows civil servants to splurge on trophies, luxury wine, private clubs, and an escape room in Kent, while British pensioners freeze in their homes.

The list of outrages is as endless as it is infuriating:

• £920 at Nassau Yacht Club in the Bahamas — because obviously, government work must involve sipping cocktails by the Caribbean Sea
• £2,493 at a high-end shoe shop in Barbados — why? Who signed off on that? Was it for shoes made of solid gold?
• £965 at a bowling club in Toronto — perhaps a crucial diplomatic meeting in the gutter?
• £672 on cardboard cut-outs of celebrities. Yes, you read that correctly — they spent your money on cardboard cut-outs
• £2,240 at the British Club in Thailand — because nothing screams “public service” like fine dining in a private members’ club
• £1,400 at Fortnum and Mason — because, naturally, civil servants can’t be expected to live without premium hampers and truffles

And let’s not forget the £814 spent at a retro computer shop by the Prison and Probation Service. Are they running a vintage arcade in our jails? Is this part of a new rehabilitation programme?

Now, Labour’s Cabinet Office Minister Pat McFadden has the audacity to pretend he’s getting tough, freezing 20,000 government procurement cards and demanding a review. But under his watch, his own department spent £1,820 on a course about learning the value of money.

Labour’s claims that they are “cutting waste” are laughable. The fact remains: they have refused to publish their own government credit card spending, while the Deputy Prime Minister has already moved to reduce transparency. The party that pretends to be for the people is in reality just another bloated, unaccountable establishment machine.

The British taxpayer is being mugged in broad daylight by the civil service and its enablers in Westminster. When ordinary families are forced to make impossible choices — heat or eat? — the Government has no right to plunder the nation’s wallet on luxuries and nonsense.

At a time when servicing the national debt is the third-largest expense in the UK, when we are told time and again that there’s no money for public services, when households across the country are tightening their belts — why are these reckless bureaucrats allowed to spend our money so frivolously?

There must be real accountability. Not just reviews, not just meaningless announcements, but a full-scale investigation into every pound of taxpayer money that has been wasted. Every official responsible should be held to account, disciplined, and removed if necessary. Government procurement cards should not be a licence for extravagance. Enough is enough. The British public deserves better than this grotesque, contemptuous mismanagement of their hard-earned money.

This isn’t just waste — it’s a national scandal. If Labour want to prove they take this seriously then heads should roll.