It’s emerged that Cabinet minister Eric Pickles, who ordered a high-profile probe into Tower Hamlets council, has spent more than £500,000 of taxpayer’s money on luxury limos.
Payments made by the Communities Secretary to the Government Car & Despatch Agency (which supplies the vehicles) found he spent £247,775 on two ministerial cars in 2012 and £185,935 in 2013. And in the first six months of this year he had already shelled out £103,091 – an almost 11% increase.
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Ashworth said: “This looks like seriously wasteful activity. Mr Pickles should be cutting costs, not driving around in luxury courtesy of the taxpayer.”
Westminster is only two stops on the London underground from Mr Pickles’ Whitehall office in Victoria. A return ticket costs £4.40.
However, Communities minister Brandon Lewis said the number of cars since Labour was in charge has gone down from six to two between seven ministers. He added: “The hypocrisy of Labour is breath-taking. We have reduced the cost of ministerial cars substantially.”
Tower Hamlets
Just last week it was announced that Pickles would take over the administration of Tower Hamlets council, in east London, for two years after an inquiry commissioned by his department found evidence of a crony culture in which grants and properties were handed to favoured groups, and proper procedures were ignored.
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Pickles is to dispatch three commissioners to oversee grant-giving, appointments, property deals and the administration of future elections in the borough.
The inquiry, conducted by accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers, found contracts were awarded without the appropriate paperwork while Lutfur Rahman, the independent elected mayor, personally selected preferred companies.
Pickles told the Commons that Rahman had dispensed public money like a “medieval monarch” and oversaw an administration that was “at best dysfunctional, at worst riddled with cronyism and corruption”. He said grants were distributed without rationale, clear objectives, monitoring or transparency.
Officers’ recommendations were systematically overruled, said Pickles, pointing out that across mainstream grants by the council, 81% of officer recommendations were rejected by councillors, and more than £400,000 was handed out to bodies that failed to meet the minimum criteria to be awarded anything at all. He added that Poplar town hall was sold, against official advice, to an individual who helped the mayor in his electoral bid.
Pickles said the report painted “a deeply concerning picture of obfuscation, denial, secrecy, the breakdown of democratic scrutiny and a culture of cronyism risking the corrupt spending of public funds”.
Lutfur Rahman
Writing in the Guardian after Pickles made his statements, Lutfur Rahman said that contrary to the impressions given in media coverage, nowhere “have charges of fraud or criminality been upheld.”
He added: “If… there are weaknesses in our governance structures or a lack of rationale displayed in some of our decisions, this is something that I, as well as council staff, will be committed to rectifying. We will listen and respond to the report. But I utterly reject any allegations of implementing policies designed to benefit any section of the community above others.
“Contrary to the impression given, the overwhelming bulk of grants were allocated to those organisations that provide services for all communities, not just one community. If most grants went to the west of the borough, it is because most of the voluntary organisations are based there. Nor was the Poplar town hall building intentionally sold off to an associate of mine. I was not aware of, or personally responsible for, the details of this sale. I did not get into politics to give out backhanders.
“Let me be clear here. There are politics behind the audit and Pickles’ proposed intervention, and they are the politics of a political establishment furious that my administration continues to embarrass it. I was elected twice as mayor on considerable majorities against huge national political machines. A majority of voters in Tower Hamlets knew I would put them first, no matter what their background. I’ve delivered on that principle.”
