Following a series of Freedom of Information requests, the Conservatives have unearthed evidence of how Labour Special Advisers have used Civil Service resources to make party political attacks, in breach of Whitehall rules.

The new documents show how civil servants have been instructed by Special Advisers to produce attack material to be used in the media against the Conservative Party.

Whitehall rules prohibit government resources being used for Party political purposes, this is outline in the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers, which states:

“Special advisers should not use official resources for party political activity. They are employed to serve the objectives of the Government and the Department in which they work. It is this which justifies their being paid from public funds and being able to use public resources, and explains why their participation in party politics is carefully limited. They should act in a way which upholds the political impartiality of civil servants and does not conflict with the Civil Service Code. They should avoid anything which might reasonably lead to the criticism that people paid from public funds are being used for party political purposes.

Special advisers must not: ask civil servants to do anything which is inconsistent with their obligations under the Civil Service Code”

On numerous occasions SpAd have demanded that members of the Civil Service dedicate time and resources to assisting the government attack opposition policies, including using civil servants to help produce its 148 page report on Conservative spending plans.

Documents released under FOI request reveal how the report was produced.

They show that the costings were all commissioned by Special Advisers, requiring independent civil servants to undertake the work and help attack the Conservative Party. And that Special Advisers systematically provide the Treasury civil servants with copies of Conservative Party policy documents and speeches.

Opposition costings are not new but, crucially, these documents show that requests were not made to inform Ministers about the merits or demerits of a particular policy proposal, nor to help Ministers respond to an Opposition Day Debate in Parliament. Instead, they were used to help the Labour party with rebuttal attacks on the Conservative Party and David Cameron in the media.

For example:

“Sam [Sam White, Treasury SpAd] has asked for quick guidance / statement of position on the following proposal(s) 1. Abolishing the RDAs. It would be useful if we could get quick guidance/statement on these proposals ASAP – latest by tomorrow at 9.30am… any assessment of scale of costs or social distribution impact you can make… these are trailed potential initiatives from the Quality of Life group of the Conservative Party’s policy review.”

“Special Advisers have requested, on behalf of Ministers, costings of the following opposition policies… With many apologies for the short notice, would it be possible to get something by ASAP please? The policies are taken from the report Breakthrough Britain: Ending the cost of social breakdown, which the Conservative Party launched this morning.”

“Special Advisers have requested, on behalf of Ministers, for the following opposition policy to be costed. Advisers have asked that this be done ASAP…. We are very mindful of other work pressures in HMT and would urge you to send us previous costings of similar requests… be aware that the Treasury may be required to justify this assumption in releasing this costing more widely.”

The Civil Service Code instructs civil servants: “You must not: act in a way that is determined by party political considerations, or use official resources for party political purposes”

Francis Maude, Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, said: “It is apparent that Labour has once again compromised the impartiality of the Civil Service and used the taxpayer-funded service for political attacks. Public confidence in Special Advisers was severely shaken by the Damian McBride incident and it is imperative that Special Advisers adhere to the Code of Conduct clearly set out for them.”