Blair accused as the costs of his office soar to £10m

Tony Blair faced fresh criticism of the Government's spin machine last night after he admitted that the cost of his personal office had soared by more than 50 per cent to £10.4m.

Tony Blair faced fresh criticism of the Government's spin machine last night after he admitted that the cost of his personal office had soared by more than 50 per cent to £10.4m.

In a written answer to the House of Commons yesterday while he was attending the G8 summit in Japan, Mr Blair admitted that the costs of his office had risen from £6.9m in 1997/8 to £8.7m in 1998/9 and £10.4m in 1999/2000. Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes who asked the Parliamentary question, said: "The cost of No 10 is spiralling out of control. It seems Mr Blair needs buckets of spin doctors and special advisers to explain to pensioners why they're only getting a 75p increase in this year's pension. If he wonders why he's unpopular, he needs to shave down No 10, stop seeing himself as the nation's saviour and adopt a bit more humility. At the moment, it's New Labour, new megalomania."

In his written answer, Mr Blair said that Labour had always aimed to have a "strong strategic centre of Government". He revealed that since May 1997, the number of letters to No 10 had rocketed and more staff had been hired. There were 500,000 items of correspondence received in 1999/2000, an 84 per cent increase over the previous year.

Andrew Lansley, the shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, said Mr Blair had been had been forced to pump the money into dealing with dissatisfaction over government failure and it was a sign of his "obsession with spin over substance".

The figures were released as John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister stepped into the controversy over leaked Downing Street memos, refused to agree with the view of Philip Gould, one of Mr Blair's key advisers that the New Labour "brand" was tarnished. "All that glitters isn't Gould," he said on Radio 4's Today programme.