MORE than £2 million in taxpayer cash was used on “Tory propaganda” promoting the government’s levelling-up project, Labour said today.

Spending records show that the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) spent £2.15 million on a marketing drive in March, two months before crucial local elections, to promote its “levelling-up” policies.

This included £590,000 fo local news organisations and over £1m for advertising on billboards and posters. 

Seven newspaper advertorials for the DLUHC were banned today following complaints from Labour MPs Lisa Nandy and Alex Norris that they were not obviously identifiable as ads.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the independent regulator, said that the local news advertisements breached rules.

They appeared on March 13 on the websites of the Grimsby Telegraph, Derby Telegraph, Birmingham Mail, Leicestershire Mercury and Newcastle Chronicle, and on Cornwall Live and Wales Online.

The ASA argued that while the ads were labelled, the statements did not reference the DLUHC and it was not clear from the text that the subsequent article would also be an ad.

The DLUHC has now been warned that the ads must not appear again in their current form and future campaigns must comply with the ASA’s rules. 

Shadow levelling-up minister Alex Norris said: “In the middle of the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation, struggling families will not understand why ministers spent millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on what was effectively Tory propaganda. 

“We need a government that will spend taxpayers’ money wisely, play by the rules, and deliver growth for every part of the country.”

The DLUHC said that it believed the advertorial labelling was both visible and prominent, saying: “This was a small element of an important public information campaign about levelling up.”