Storing unused personal protective equipment costs taxpayers nearly half a million pounds a day.
The bill for stashing potentially vital coronavirus kit is estimated to be £3.3million a week, the Government admitted.
The money includes costs for keeping some gear in China.
Labour ’s deputy leader Angela Rayner, who requested the breakdown, said struggling families would be “outraged” to learn how much is being “frittered away” on PPE storage costs.
She said: “While families are struggling to make their pay cheques last the month, they will be justly outraged to learn their hard-earned taxes are being frittered away to meet huge PPE storage costs on the other side of the world.
“The Government flushing the public’s money down the drain with their wasteful cronyism adds insult to injury as they raise taxes on working people in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.”
Ms Rayner had written to the Government to request it “publish an estimate of the costs of storage and warehousing for PPE from August 2021 to date”.
Health Minister Edward Argar replied: “Between September 1, 2021 to November 30, 2021, the latest information available, the total cost for personal protective equipment storage in the United Kingdom was £72.4m and £5.8m for storage in China.
“We estimate current storage costs to be approximately £3.3m a week.
“This is a reduction of 82% compared to October 2020.”
