The federal government consumed greater than 1,400 bottles of wine and spirits on the taxpayer’s expense and topped up its cellar with £27,000 of contemporary inventory throughout the two years of the Covid pandemic from 2020 to 2022, new figures present.
The report on the federal government’s wine cellar was printed on Thursday after repeated delays. It confirmed that 130 bottles have been consumed throughout the yr to March 2021, whereas an extra 1,300 have been drunk throughout the yr to March 2022.
The consumption was a drastic drop in contrast with the three,000 to five,000 bottles of wine and spirits often consumed in a yr as the federal government scaled again its exercise throughout lockdown and the dearth of worldwide journey.
The cellar is supposed to “present company of the federal government, from house and abroad, with wines of applicable high quality at cheap value”. However a big quantity was nonetheless spent throughout the Covid disaster on topping up reserves. From March 2020 to 2021, £14,621 was splashed out on 516 bottles of pink bordeaux wines, costing about £28 every.
The federal government spent £12,356 on English and Welsh glowing wines within the yr from March 2021, with 636 bottles – together with 180 magnums – at a mean value of £19. It additionally purchased 18 bottles of gin, and 4 bottles every of whisky and liqueurs that yr.
International Workplace minister Andrew Mitchell stated in a written assertion: “All occasions organised by authorities hospitality throughout this era have been achieved so in strict accordance with Covid-19 restrictions.”
However the shadow lawyer normal, Emily Thornberry, stated: “For months, we’ve got requested why the federal government was suppressing the publication of this report, and now we all know the reply. Whereas the remainder of the nation was dealing with Covid restrictions and a value of residing disaster, the federal government was getting by means of 1,433 bottles from its wine cellar, and replenishing the shares with a web spend of greater than £100,000 over the three years from 2019-22. They lived the excessive life at taxpayers’ expense whereas the remainder of the nation struggled, and it’ll by no means be forgotten.”
Earlier, Tory MP Sir Charles Walker advised the Home of Commons that customers ought to contemplate shopping for “two or three bottles” of Australian wine to “present solidarity” with the nation.
MPs heard the nation’s trade has been harmed by China’s imposition of tariffs on Australian wine.