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Michael Gove has been branded a hypocrite after his department splashed out more than £15,000 on bottled water.

The Environment Secretary and arch- Brexiteer has championed curbs on plastic waste since rejoining the Government in the aftermath of last June’s general election.

On Ash Wednesday he was among 41 Tory MPs pledging ‘to reduce their use of harmful single-use plastics for Lent’, including ‘cutting down on the use of plastic water bottles’.

But responses to written Commons questions reveal how a supplier to the ministry he now leads is one of Whitehall’s worst offenders for using bottled water.

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The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs could have insisted on using only tap water when it signed the contract.

But instead, its ‘catering provider’ spent £15,581.57 on bottled water between October 2014 and September 2017.

Former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron, who uncovered the figures, said: “It’s astonishing how a department which is there to protect the environment can be spending so much money on waste which will pollute our oceans.

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“Michael Gove is a hypocrite - he talks about how we should all reduce the amount of plastic we use, but these figures show that he needs to get his own house in order first.”

The revelations his own department has been buying bottled water for at least the last three years will be an embarrassment to the Cabinet Minister, a one-time Conservative leadership hopeful.

In December, he called for greater access to public drinking fountains to ‘encourage people to carry refillable bottles instead of buying disposable ones’ and tackle the ‘surge of plastic clogging our rivers and oceans’.

Mr Gove said: “Across the world, more than a million birds and over 100,000 other sea mammals and turtles die every year from eating and getting tangled up in plastic waste.

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“We have to make sure that we use fewer plastic bottles, recycle them better and, most crucially, stop them from ending up on our beaches and riverbanks, in our seas and rivers, causing terrible damage to wildlife as well as blighting the landscape.”

Speaking to the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, he demanded action to protect marine life from plastic waste.

He said: “That means tackling the rise in plastic bottles entering our waters by making it simpler and easier to recycle and dispose of them appropriately.”

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Just 57% of plastic bottles sold in the UK in 2016 were collected for recycling.

In its response to the written Commons question, Mr Gove’s Department said: “Since 2014, the amount of money spent on purchasing water bottles by Defra’s catering provider has fallen by over a third.

“Defra as a Department does not purchase any plastic water bottles. The current catering contract expires this summer.

“The tender for the new contract stipulates that the supplier must not use plastic bottles and single use plastics.

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“Reusable glasses are now supplied.”

Elsewhere in Government, Boris Johnson’s Foreign Office ploughed more than £16,000 into plastic water bottles in 2016 and 2017.

It bought 2,099 containers for water coolers, each holding 18.9 litres.

That is a total of 39,671 litres - more than 8,726 gallons - of bottled water.

Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said: “Water cooler bottles are returned to the supplier for re-use.

“All requests for water coolers are assessed. They are only provided if there is a business need and it is not possible or cost-effective to provide a plumbed-in supply.

“The provision of water coolers is reviewed on a regular basis.”

It added that ‘500ml plastic water bottles are available for staff purchase in the UK from the FCO catering provider as part of their catering offering, but there is no cost to the FCO’.

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“Recycling facilities are provided throughout the FCO to enable staff to recycle these bottles and all other recyclable items.”

Two arms of the Department for Transport, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, racked up a £22,743 bill on bottled water between 2010-11 and 2017-18.

Costs soared from £1,268 in 2014-15 to £4,496 2017-18.

The DfT said: “The vast majority of the spend above has been incurred on the large water dispenser bottles which are used on watercoolers.

“The empties are returned to the supplier for reuse/refilling.”

The Northern Ireland Office spent £143.80 in 2016 and 2017 on bottled water.

Other Government departments refused to provide figures, said bills for bottled water were bundled into overall catering costs or insisted they did not buy bottled water.