Wasteful government spending on fidget spinners, posh art and hand sanitzer 'slashed by £25m in last four months'

After the Cabinet Office launched a crackdown on the use of government-issued procurement cards, they’ve cut the number of domestic cards by two thirds from 7000 down to 2000.

And yet more examples of wasteful spending at the heart of Whitehall have been exposed too.

That includes the Prison Service spending £9,236 on branded hand sanitiser, the Ministry of Justice paying £4,019 for branded USB cables for a virtual conference.

Cash was also splurged on branded jumpers, and even £1,450 on fidget spinners and cubes.

Around £6million a month has been saved in the four months since the crackdown was launched.

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It was previously revealed how the Treasury had spent more than £3,693 buying 13 fine art photographs from the Tate, despite having access to the government art collection.

Ministers said today that it was a win for hard-pressed Brits still suffering with the cost of living crisis.

The extra cash saved will go back into departmental budgets, giving them extra to spend straight on frontline services, the government says.

Darren Jones, Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister told LBC: “This is a massive sum of cash saved from the government credit card bill.

"We came into office with a promise to cut wasteful, unnecessary spending and prioritise the public services used every day by people across the UK. That is exactly what we have done.

"Where the status quo isn’t working, we’re changing it.”