Rishi Sunak has been accused of wasting money on PR after the Treasury communications budget rose by 25 per cent last year and the Government increased taxes.

       The Treasury spent ￡3.4 million on communications in the year to April 2022 – up from ￡2.7 million in the previous 12 months – in data revealed by parliamentary questions by Tulip Siddiq, the shadow economic secretary to the Treasury.

       Three-quarters of the total cost last year was spent on paying 40 staff, despite calls from Downing Street for departments to reduce their headcounts. The remainder was spent on services and equipment, said an official response.

       A Treasury spokesman said the budget had increased "slightly" by ￡700,000 to "take account of the expanded ways in which we communicate with the public".

       But Labour said the figures were evidence that the Chancellor was "wasting money to boost his own media profile" and called for an "emergency Budget" to give extra support to people who cannot afford to pay their bills.

       Ms Siddiq said: "This increasingly out of touch and desperate Chancellor has decided to spend taxpayers' money on a personal PR campaign in the middle of the most serious cost-of-living crisis in a generation.

       "Rather than wasting money to boost his own media profile, he should bring forward an emergency Budget to support working people struggling with the cost-of-living crisis."

       Last week, Cabinet ministers were instructed to find savings their departments could make to reduce the overall civil service headcount by 91,000.

       The drive is being led by Jacob Rees-Mogg, the minister for Government efficiency, who is also cracking down on civil servants working from home.

       The Treasury's communications budget increase has also prompted criticism from Conservatives. One senior Tory backbencher told The Telegraph: "The cost of government communication has become completely disproportionate, and almost inversely proportional to its effectiveness.

       "That's certainly the case of the Treasury. if people were supposed to feel better disposed to the Treasury as a result of all this money being spent then you wouldn't find so many people complaining about it, would you?

       "Rishi has for several months been sending some very glossy emails every Friday to Conservative MPs. There is no doubt that the Treasury comms machine has been used to advanced Rishi's personal ambitions."

       The Treasury spokesman said: "We remain one of the smallest communications teams across Whitehall. The communications team's budget also includes the cost of our insight function. This has significantly expanded over the past couple of years.

       "While the costs sit with comms, insight is used to inform the department's wider policy-making and decisions."