Nearly £600,000 of the foreign aid budget has been spent on renovating a palace used by Baroness Scotland as her office.

The former attorney general and Labour peer used the money for “upkeep, security and maintenance” of Marlborough House, the lavish London headquarters of the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Lady Scotland, the secretary-general of the Commonwealth Secretariat, received the funding from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport for the work, which counted towards the UK’s controversial 0.7 per cent foreign aid spending target.

In 2016 and 2017, £589,772 of taxpayers' money has been spent on Marlborough House in two years, according to official figures obtained by the Daily Mail.

The Commonwealth Secretariat was established to support the 53 member nations to “achieve development, democracy and peace”.

Marlborough House, located in St James, London, has been used as the venue for a number of independence negotiations and Commonwealth conferences, including the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting earlier this year.

Lady Scotland has also used the former royal palace to host an annual reception to mark Commonwealth Day.

Designed by Sir Christopher Wren, the palace's previous occupants included five Dukes and Duchesses of Marlborough, three Dowager Queens, three Princes of Wales who later became Kings, and Prince Leopold, who became King of the Belgians.