£42,000 a month for Foreign Office taxis

Almost £400,000 of taxpayers' money was spent on taxis for ministers and civil servants in the Foreign Office in just nine months, it was revealed today.

Between April and December, the department spent £378,000 on cabs for staff - an average of £42,000 a month, and only £2,000 less than the £380,000 in the entire previous financial year. An answer to a Tory Commons question showed the department is on course to spend up to 30 per cent more than last year on taxis.

Shadow Chief Secretary of the Treasury John Bercow, who asked Foreign Secretary Jack Straw the question, called the spending "obscene".

He said: "Ministers are off swanning around at huge cost to the taxpayer while ordinary people are struggling to get to work on a crumbling and pathetic public transport system."

A Foreign Office spokesman said the increase was due to round-the-clock operations after the 11 September terrorist attacks in the USA.

"Our rules permit use of taxis outside working hours and where long hours have been worked," he said.

"We manned a 24-hour operation in response to 11 September. The increase would reflect that."