Labour is on track to spend over £4million on foreign visas for civil servants by the end of this Parliament.
New data revealed from a Freedom of Information (FOI) request showed the Government spent at least £566,000 on visas for foreign nationals in the first eight months after last July's election.
The figures showed the worst offender was the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) which has come under fire from Labour backbenchers following a series of controversial welfare reforms.
If expenditure continues at the current level, this will equate to almost a £2.8 million bill for this department alone by July 2029, reports MailOnline.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves
PA
Figures show the DWP spent £368,655 on sponsoring foreign visas, with the Cabinet Office in second on £56,153 and the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) spending £45,658.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said it did not sponsor any employee visas as a right to work in the UK is a requirement for all applicants to its roles.
In total, the Government spent £566,102 on visas by March 2025, putting it on track for a £4,245,762 bill by the end of Parliament.
A Cabinet Office spokesman told GB News: "Under our Plan for Change, our upcoming Immigration White Paper will set out a comprehensive plan to restore order to our broken immigration system, linking immigration, skills and visa systems to grow our domestic workforce, end reliance on overseas labour and boost economic growth."
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Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has proposed these alterations to cut the PIP budget by £5 billionPAGB News has approached the DWP and the DHSC for comment.
It comes as Nigel Farage has launched a "Doge-style" plan for councils across England after Reform UK scooped up hundreds of council seats in a massive electoral victory.
The Cabinet Office has confirmed it would be scrapping 1,200 roles, almost a third of its 6,500 'core staff."
Meanwhile, Chancellor Rachel Reeves also used her Spring Statement in March to set out how she wants to cut Government running costs by 15 percent by 2030.
Earlier this week, the Prime Minister described the civil service as "overstretched, unfocused and unable to deliver the security people need today."
He added that he was "not interested in ideological arguments about whether [the state] should be bigger or smaller. I simply want it to work."
Starmer wrote in The Telegraph: "So we will make sure our civil servants are equipped for the challenges of the modern era. "We’ll bring them closer to communities, free them from bureaucracy and provide the right incentives for success."
