BROWN'S QUANGO INFATUATION COSTS TAXPAYER £46.5bn

12.00.00am GMT Thu 4th Feb 2010

Today, the Government published new figures showing that the annual cost of running quangos has risen to £46.5bn - a rise of nearly £10bn since Gordon Brown became Prime Minister.

Commenting, Jenny Willott, Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet Office Minister, said:

"Gordon Brown has taken Labour's obsession with unelected and unaccountable quangos to a new extreme.

"This is the largest sum of money ever spent on running quangos. It is obscene sum of money to spend on bodies that lack transparency and effective democratic control.

"The Liberal Democrats are the only party truly committed to bringing in better politics for less.

"As a start, we would scrap 90 quangos and cap the salaries of senior management. This alone would help save nearly £1.2bn a year in taxpayers' money at a stroke."