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Heavyweight Cabinet minister Eric Pickles has spent more than £500,000 on luxury limos.

Labour number crunchers have added up payments Mr Pickles made to the Government Car & Despatch Agency which supplies the vehicles.

And they found the Communities Secretary spent £247,775 on two ministerial cars in 2012 and £185,935 in 2013.

But in the first six months of this year he had already shelled out £103,091, an almost 11% increase.

Shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Ashworth said: “This looks like seriously wasteful activity.

“Mr Pickles should be cutting costs, not driving around in luxury courtesy of the taxpayer.”

Mr Pickles has already told local authorities to slash travel spending to save money.

Westminster is only two stops on the London underground from Mr Pickles’ Whitehall office in Victoria.

A return ticket costs £4.40 - and £536,801 would pay for 122,000 of them.

He could buy an annual travelcard for £1,256 - and the money he spent on limos would pay for 427 of those.

Communities minister Brandon Lewis said the number of cars since Labour was in charge has gone down from six to two between seven ministers.

He added: “The hypocrisy of Labour is breath-taking. We have reduced the cost of ministerial cars substantially.”