Pickles' snack costs soar by £10,000

Published by Max Salsbury for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Central Government, Finance

The secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, is under fire after it emerged that his department's snack bill has risen by £10,000.

Labour MP Diane Abbot discovered that the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) spent £42,225 on confection over seven months in 2012 - up £10,000 on 2011.

Last year, Mr Pickles came up with a list of 50 ways that councils could cut costs, including ditching free biscuits and other treats at meetings.

Diane Abbot said: "Nobody begrudges Eric the odd digestive but he needs to cut his biscuit bill.

"Thanks to his policies councils all over the country are having to cut vital facilities like libraries."

However, the Daily Mail reported that Local Government Minister Brandon Lewis defended Mr Pickles, by claiming that the total snacks bill had fallen since the Coalition took power from Labour.

He also called Diane Abbott a "hypocrite" and said that Labour ministers behaved like "champagne socialists" during their years in power.

During an appearance on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs before Christmas, presenter Kirsty Young put it to Mr Pickles that he was a "thinking man's John Prescott," to which the minister emitted a deep sigh.

During the same interview, Mr Pickles said that when he was 16 he decided to do something "really outrageous" and joined the Conservative Party.

He also claimed that he wasn't "cold and calculating" and that he sometimes fills up Coalition colleague Vince Cable's water glass during cabinet meetings.

The CLG said it could not comment directly on its confectionary costs as they were a "political matter".