London, Aug 13 (ANI): “Culture of excess” seems to have flourished during the term of Gordon Brown’s Labour government in the United Kingdom as the most detailed breakdown of Government spending so far detailed how its members used the public money to meet their luxurious and comfort needs - a 1,600 pounds was spent on “massages” while 539 pounds on a staff day-trip to Blackpool pleasure beach.

Communities and Local Government (CLG) became the first department to disclose a list of all expenditure on goods and services above 500 pounds.

Sky News quoted Local Government Minister Bob Neill as saying that: “It seems quite literally the Government Offices for the Regions were taking the taxpayer for a ride. They were living it up at the taxpayer’s expense whilst thousands of households were struggling to make ends meet.

“Splashing out six-figure sums on pollsters appears to be another one of Labour’s vanity projects. It’s unforgivable that a culture of excess was allowed to flourish for so long,” he added.

The 1,900 items of expenditure disclosed by the central CLG department for 2009-10 total 314 million pounds.

There was a 16 million pounds bill for marketing, advertising, promotion and events, while 635,000 pounds went on taxis and chauffeur driven cars, and nearly 310,000 pounds on catering and food.

The department’s quangos accounted for another 337 million pounds. One entry for the Government Offices for the Regions - which are being abolished by the coalition - was 1,673 to pounds Stress Angels, a company that offers on-site corporate massage.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister David Cameron said making Whitehall more transparent would help safeguard taxpayers’ money.

“If civil servants and if ministers and MPs know that the public are going to see how money is spent, it will make them think twice before spending it on something stupid like a massage chair or whatever else,” Cameron, said. (ANI)