Furious taxpayers demand answers after global ad giants M&C Saatchi pocket fortune for tweaking government site colours
They’ve really taken us for mugs this time! Ministers have splashed out an eye-watering £532,000 of YOUR money on what amounts to little more than a glorified colour change for the government website.
The gov.uk site – where millions of Brits grudgingly file their tax returns and renew passports – is getting a flashy new makeover that involves turning the traditional black header blue and making a dot turquoise. Yes, you read that right. Over half a million pounds. To move a dot.
The costly rebrand, which hands global advertising behemoth M&C Saatchi contracts potentially worth up to £750,000, has left civil servants in stitches. One insider couldn’t resist mocking online: “Did someone really get paid to move a dot?”
Others weren’t holding back either, branding the new look “cheap,” “tacky” and “absolutely diabolical.” Makes you wonder if they’ve been taking design tips from a Year 7 IT class, doesn’t it?
Reform UK Boss Sees Red Over Blue Rebrand
Zia Yusuf, the man spearheading Reform UK’s efficiency drive, didn’t mince his words when he heard about this latest example of Whitehall waste.
The disrespect for taxpayers’ money continues to be astounding,” he thundered. “Spending more than £500,000 on changing a logo on a government website is a joke at the taxpayer’s expense, quite literally.”
The Reform UK heavyweight, who’s been busy running the party’s DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) team – inspired by Elon Musk’s similar American initiative – knows a thing or two about spotting wasteful spending. His teams have been crawling through council budgets with a fine-tooth comb, using AI and data analysis to root out financial nonsense.
“This is just the kind of thing we have been uncovering in county halls on a daily basis,” Yusuf added. “It’s abundantly clear that Whitehall also needs a visit from Reform’s DOGE team.”
Tories Started It, Labour Finished It
Here’s where it gets even more ridiculous. According to publicly available papers, TWO contracts for this “brand refresh” were originally tendered by Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government. But instead of binning them when they took power, Labour decided to crack on with the expensive facelift.
Communications giant M&C Saatchi – yes, the same lot behind countless flashy ad campaigns – secured deals potentially worth up to three-quarters of a million pounds. The government insists the final bill came to “only” £532,000, drawn from existing department budgets. As if that makes it better!
One government source, clearly as baffled as the rest of us, said: “As a government we are trying to maximise efficiency and save money. Why was this what we chose to spend time and resources on?”
Another insider couldn’t resist a cheeky dig: “Reform blue for the dot. Conservative blue for the background. Are they preparing us for 2029?”
Taxpayers Alliance: ‘An Insult to Hardworking Brits’
Elliot Keck from the TaxPayers’ Alliance didn’t pull any punches either. “Taxpayers will be baffled that hundreds of thousands have been blown on minor graphic design changes,” he said.
At a time when public services are stretched and families are feeling the pinch, shelling out for a vanity rebrand is an insult to hardworking Brits. Ministers should be focusing on delivering frontline services, not petty optics.”
And he’s spot on, isn’t he? While pensioners are choosing between heating and eating, while the NHS waiting lists stretch longer than the M25 at rush hour, our government thinks the priority is making a website look slightly prettier.
What Exactly Are We Getting for Our Money?
So what does half a million quid buy you in the world of government web design? Brace yourself for the underwhelming reveal:
- The black masthead becomes blue (revolutionary!)
- The dot gets a turquoise makeover (groundbreaking!)
- The changes will go live this month (can hardly contain our excitement!)
That’s it. That’s your tax pounds at work, folks.
Officials, scrambling to defend this madness, insist the six-figure bill included “refreshing and extending” the Gov.UK brand across web, mobile and app platforms. They’re also keen to point out that the rebrand will help with their “upcoming gov.uk App, gov.uk Chat and more.”
A government spokesman tried to pass the buck, saying: “This was committed to by the previous government, with two of the three contracts signed and delivered by July 2024. The new government then chose to turn the rebranding and research work into consumer-friendly digital products.
Translation: The Tories started this expensive nonsense, but we decided to finish it anyway.
The Bigger Picture
This latest scandal comes at a time when Reform UK has been making waves with its DOGE efficiency drives across councils it now controls. The Doge team will be used to scrutinise local government spending using artificial intelligence, data analysis tools and forensic auditing techniques to recommend solutions.
Yusuf made the comments to Sky News while speaking to Trevor Phillips, where he said: “When was the last time you had a political leader in this country with a real shot at Downing Street, calling for £300 to £400 billion of cuts in the first term of government?
Whether you agree with Reform’s approach or not, at least someone’s trying to tackle government waste. Meanwhile, Westminster’s idea of efficiency is spending more than most people’s houses cost on changing a website’s colour scheme.
The Bottom Line
In a world where M&C Saatchi, clients of which also include Amazon (AMZN.O), opens new tab and Google (GOOGL.O), opens new tab, you’d think they could knock up a quick logo change for considerably less than half a million pounds.
But no, this is government procurement we’re talking about – where common sense goes to die and taxpayers’ wallets go to be emptied.
The real kicker? This rebrand won’t make filing your tax return any easier. It won’t speed up passport renewals. It won’t fix a single pothole or reduce a single NHS waiting list.
It’s just moving a dot and changing some colours. For £532,000.
Next time ministers lecture us about tightening our belts or “difficult decisions” about public spending, remember this moment. Remember the day they spent more than half a million pounds to make a website slightly bluer.
Because if that doesn’t perfectly sum up everything wrong with how our government spends our money, nothing will.
