Government used 1,433 bottles of wine and spirits during Covid pandemic

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The government used 1,433 bottles of wine and spirits from its wine cellar during the Covid pandemic, the Foreign Office has admitted.

The acknowledged function of the federal government wine cellar is to “provide guests of the government, from home and overseas, with wines of appropriate quality at reasonable cost”.

Between 2020 and 2022, 20 bottles of Champagne, 27 bottles of gin, and 1,376 bottles of purple and white wine have been used. That was regardless of Covid restrictions limiting in-person contact being in place for a lot of that point.

The authorities’s web spend on additions to the wine cellar over this era has additionally been revealed as greater than £100,000, with almost £27,000 of taxpayers’ cash blown. The figures are included within the delayed bi-annual report on the federal government’s wine cellar for 2020 -2022, revealed by the Foreign Office on Thursday.

The authorities has already confronted appreciable criticism for its consumption of alcohol during the pandemic, on account of unlawful social gatherings uncovered during the partygate scandal. Boris Johnson was compelled to resign as prime minister following his function within the scandal and his subsequent denials in parliament.

The newly-released figures revealed that in 2020/21, on the top of the Covid disaster, £14,621 was splashed out on 516 bottles of purple Bordeaux wines, costing round £28 every. In 2021/22, a thirst for English and Welsh glowing wines noticed the federal government spend £12,356 on topping up its cellar with 636 bottles, together with 180 magnums, at a mean value of £19. It additionally purchased 18 bottles of gin, and 4 bottles every of whisky and liqueurs.

The report did present the federal government’s consumption of wine dropped by some 96% in 2020/21, in comparison with earlier than the pandemic. It rose the next 12 months, however nonetheless remained almost 61% decrease than pre-pandemic ranges.

Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell mentioned in a written assertion: “All events organised by Government Hospitality during this period were done so in strict accordance with Covid-19 restrictions.”

Labour has critcised the federal government for the newest figures, as Shadow Attorney General, Emily Thornberry, mentioned:

“For months, we have asked why the government was suppressing the publication of this report, and now we know the answer.

“While the rest of the country was facing Covid restrictions and a cost of living crisis, the government was getting through 1,433 bottles from its wine cellar, and replenishing the stocks with a net spend of more than £100,000 over the three years from 2019-22.

“They lived the high life at taxpayers’ expense while the rest of the country struggled, and it will never be forgotten.”