Minister Pat McFadden says at least half will be permanently cancelled in effort to reduce wasteful purchases

Thousands of Whitehall officials will have their government “credit cards” suspended this week in Labour’s latest crackdown on what it regards as wasteful spending in the civil service.

Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister, said on Monday he would freeze almost all of the 20,000 government procurement cards (GPCs) within days with a view to permanently cancelling at least half of them.