Cabinet Member Eric Pickles Racks Up £500,000 Bill On Fancy Cars

Pickles does not appear to be practising what he preaches - he has previously told local authorities to cut travel costs to save money.

The Communities Secretary listed "cut expensive travel" among his "50 ways to save" in a government announcement published in 2012.

Labour members uncovered the travel expenses using figures from The Government Cat & Despatch Agency, which sorts out the transport.

According to their report, Pickles spent £247,775 on just two ministerial cars in 2012, £185,935 last year, and in the first half of 2014, racked up a bill of £103,091.

It's safe to assume that Pickles' rides are a little more fancy than this one:

Jon Ashworth, the Labour party's Deputy Chair, calls Pickles' activity "seriously wasteful" and says the Cabinet member should be cutting costs, rather than splashing out on "luxury".

But Communities minister Brandon Lewis defends Pickles' payments and claims "the number of cars since Labour was in charge has gone down."