Treasury allocates £ 500,000 of public money to focus groups and polls

The Treasury has been criticized for spending £ 500,000 of taxpayers’ money on focus groups and surveys.

Procurement documents have been published Government show consultants Deltapoll were selected to carry out work with the possibility of extending the contract for another year, resulting in a possible total cost of up to £ 1 million.

The contract states that researchers are expected to conduct focus groups twice a week and weekly online surveys over a 12-month period ending in February 2023.

They should also make monthly “in-depth reports” of their findings, including analysis.

Work said it was “just staggering” that the department had given the green light “a little more than taxpayer-funded spending for Chancellor desperately repairing your image ”.

But a source in the Treasury Department insisted that the study focused on politics rather than getting feedback on Mr Sunak’s personal profile.

Deputy Labor leader Angela Reiner said: “At a time when Rishi Sunak said British people, he has no money to alleviate the cost of living crisis, and that cutting their electricity bills would be “stupid,” just staggering that he ordered to spend another half a million taxpayer money on private focus groups and opinion polls.

“The government apparently has half a million to spend on spin doctors, while Jacob Reese-Mogh is threatening to dump thousands of jobs in the civil service in order to save costs by throwing working people under the bus again.

“At the beginning of the pandemic the Ministry of Finance justified its spending on focus groups and polls as an emergency measure to test the impact of different policy options, but now it is little more than taxpayer-funded vanity of the Chancellor’s image.

“He doesn’t need to spend a small fortune on focus groups to hear what the British public is saying to him: they want serious action to help with the cost of living crisis, starting with Labor’s plan for an unexpected North Sea oil and gas tax for financing the reduction of energy bills. “

Although the contract runs until February next year, the award letter says it could be extended for another 12 months for a total of £ 1 million.

A Treasury spokesman said: “The Treasury conducts regular surveys to help develop and measure the impact and understanding of its policies.

“All surveys are conducted in the usual tender process, which provides the best value for money to taxpayers.”

Last year, Boris Johnson’s government was accused of “misusing” taxpayers’ money after it emerged that state funds had been used to poll opposition politicians.

Documents released by the Good Law Project showed that “questions” had been asked about Labor leader Sir Keira Starmer and London Labor mayor Sadiq Khan.

The documents say the issues allowed the government to assess “trust” in its spokespersons compared to other politicians.