Treasury spent £3,000 of taxpayers’ cash on arty photos when Rishi Sunak was Chancellor

The Treasury forked out over £3,000 on a set of fine art photographs from the Tate Gallery while Rishi Sunak was Chancellor, Labour has revealed.

Despite already having access to the vast Government Art Collection – some 14,700 works – the purchase was made at the taxpayers’ expense in March 2021.

The figures were revealed as part of a Labour dossier spending on Whitehall’s credit card, known as the Government Procurement Card.

The documents reveal today that the Treasury spent £3,393 buying the “13 fine art photographs” which were exhibited in the department’s Horse Guard Road building.

A minister declined to outline the purpose for the spending when asked by Labour frontbencher Emily Thornberry in a parliamentary question in December last year.

In the period between 2020 and 2022 Government departments also splashed out at least £20,000 on “unnecessary corporate branding”, including mugs, USB cables, notebooks and sashes, Labour said.

In September 2020 the Ministry of Justice paid over £4,000 for 850 branded USB cables from Positive Media Promotions.

In one instance, the Home Office spent £584 to ensure all customer facing staff in the Belfast passport office were using the same colour drinking cups, the dossier claimed.

A further £968 was spent by UK visas and immigration in September 2022 on “thermos cups in corporate colour (purple)”.

Responding to a parliamentary question, minister Robert Jenrick did not specify the number of cups purchased, saying only: “The spend was made in accordance with Home office policy”.

The Mirror has previously reported that the Government Property Agency splashed out 500 branded fidget cubes – to the tune of £1,450 – for a civil service live event.