Government spent more than £73,000 stocking up wine cellar in one year
The Government’s wine cellar cost £73,091 last year, which is £26,185 more than it cost the year before.
The Foreign Office runs the wine cellar to provide drinks for events and receptions. But since the coronavius pandemic made it impossible for any large functions to go ahead, most the wine remains undrank.
Some 73% of all bottles bought last year were English and Welsh wines, the report revealed when it was laid in Parliament on Thursday.
In total, politicians had the pick of 32,921 different wines and spirits last year.
But they only polished off 3,336 bottles, which is a 17.5% decrease in consumption from the year before.
White wines are clearly the favourite, as they were drunk at more than double the rate of reds.
More than half of the wines drank by ministers were English.
The cellar has been described as ‘self-funding’ since 2011-2012 and is stocked with money from the sale of high-value wines.
For example, different government departments brought in £44,200 in 2018/19 by selling top-notch bottles of Chateau Margaux 1988, Le Pin 1986, Chateau Haut Brion 1989 and six magnums of Krug 1982.
No sales were made in 2019-2020 – despite £50,000 of stock being identified – because of the pandemic, ministers have said.
But the Government said it got an extra £23,220 to spend on the cellar from departments buying wines for different events.
The cellar, in the basement of Lancaster House in Whitehall, was set up more than 110 years ago.
But the Government only leases the cellar, as it is officially owned by the Queen.
Presenting the biannual report to the Commons, Mr Adams wrote: ‘The wine cellar has been self-funding since 2011-2012, through the sale of some high-value stock and payments made by other Government departments for events organised by Government Hospitality.’
The figures come as the Government announced further cuts to the UK’s aid budget.
Boris Johnson told on the Commons on Tuesday that he had made the decision because the UK’s finances are under ‘greater strain then ever before in peacetime history’.
Theresa May, and several other ministers, accused the Government of ‘turning its back on the poorest in the world’.
Currently, any money spent on aid has to be borrowed. Mr Johnson plans to return the aid budget to 0.7% once debt is falling and the country is no longer borrowing money for its day-to-day spending.
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