Party says data collected from six government departments shows spending on adverts promoting Conservative policies has risen sharply since autumn

Labour has accused the Tories of using public money to bankroll their election campaign, after it emerged that the government had sharply increased the amount it spends on promoting policies such as Help to Buy and pension reforms.

Data collected by Labour from six departments shows monthly spending on advertising was about £4m in September and £2m in October but had increased to £10.4m in February. Spending in March is expected to have been about £9.3m, it says.

Parliamentary answers reveal that almost £1m has been spent on promoting the married tax allowance – a government policy that is in the Conservative manifesto but is disliked by the Liberal Democrats. A national ad campaign running for five to six weeks between February and March was approved on 17 December 2014, encouraging “eligible couples to register their interest online”.

Another £5.1m was spent on the chancellor George Osborne’s two pet policies - the Help to Buy housing scheme and pension reforms.

A further £7.5m has been spent on a campaign called “GREAT business”, including £1m on newspaper adverts, £1m in online adverts and £400,000 on radio adverts.

Angela Eagle, the shadow leader of the Commons, accused the Conservatives of trying to boost their campaign with Whitehall funds.



She said: “They’ve been visiting key seats courtesy of the taxpayer and now official advertising campaigns are promoting Tory policies. This looks like an abuse of official resources and ministers must urgently clarify how this was agreed and whether all correct procedures have been followed.”

The six departments to provide figures for ad spending were business, education, justice, culture, environment and energy. There has also been a wider 22% increase in the government communications budget, which rose to £290m in 2014-15.

Labour has previously made an official complaint about the use of taxpayers’ money to promote the Conservative party slogan of the “Long Term Economic Plan” in official government publications and spending on ministerial visits to key marginal seats.

The Tories were also facing accusations of pork-barrelling on Thursday after transport minister John Hayes made an announcement that could pave the way for the re-opening of Manston airport in Thanet, Kent.

Ukip’s leader, Nigel Farage, has made the re-opening of the airport a key plank of his campaign to win the marginal seat of South Thanet.