Cost of Corbyn: Labour's plans for 108 new taxpayer funded quangos revealed

New analysis shows that Labour’s manifesto commits to creating over 100 new quangos, with a total cost of £13.2 billion over the next five years – costing every taxpayer in the country £425.

The analysis shows:

• Pledges in Labour’s 2019 manifesto alone commit to the creation of at least 108 new quangos - unaccountable public bodies paid for by the taxpayer.
• The running costs of these new quangos will be a minimum of £1.86 billion per year - adding up to £9.32 billion over five years.
• This is on top of another £3.93 billion in upfront costs which will be required to set up and finance these quangos.

Corbyn’s unnecessary quangos include:

• The Agricultural Wages Board and School Support Staff Negotiating Body which were previously abolished as their functions were no longer needed or were already better carried out by other means.
• The English Sovereign Land Trust which would duplicate functions already carried out by existing bodies like Local Authorities.
• The resurrection of New Labour’s failed network of Government Offices of the Regions and Regional Development Agencies which cost taxpayers hundreds of millions every year and were abolished for providing bad value for money for taxpayers.

Worse still, Corbyn plans to abolish crucial organisations such as Ofsted – which keeps our children safe. Another example – his proposed Workers’ Protection Agency – would effectively be a taxpayer-funded enforcement arm of the trade unions, with huge power not only to take regulatory and enforcement action against businesses but also to bring full-on legal action against them.

Responding, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rishi Sunak said:

“Jeremy Corbyn's plan to set up over a hundred new quangos will hugely increase bureaucracy and waste in government. Corbyn’s new quangos range from the pointless and profligate to the deeply damaging and sinister. I am particularly concerned that they will hugely increase the power of their chums in the trade unions which will mean more strikes and more gridlock.

"The British people have worked hard to repair the damage done to our economy by the last Labour Government, we shouldn't let Corbyn throw it all away. His reckless spending spree will cost every taxpayer an extra £2,400 a year. The British people don't want more quangos and bureaucrats, they want us to fund more nurses, doctors and police on our streets.

"We can't afford the cost of Corbyn and we can't afford his plan for two more referendums and the dither and delay it will cause. Vote Conservative to get Brexit done, keep taxes down and to keep our economy strong."