Labour abandons its £1.3m 'hotline to the nation'

The people's panel, the giant government focus group set up amid a fanfare of publicity after Labour's election victory in 1997, is to be abolished, ministers admitted last night.

The 5,000-strong panel, billed as Tony Blair's hotline to the nation, was administered by Mori to investigate public attitudes on issues ranging from the literacy hour in primary schools to food labelling. But it attracted condemnation after the revelation that it had cost £1.3m simply to confirm, according to critics, what ordinary people already knew.

The Cabinet Office minister Christopher Leslie confirmed that Mori's contract to run the panel, which expired yesterday, would not be renewed.

Mr Leslie said the panel had been "influential in demonstrating the value of establishing the views of citizens and the users of public services in policy making and service delivery". But he said government departments and agencies had improved in their ability to consult the public, and so there was no longer a need for the surveys to be done centrally.

The panel was among the expenses condemned yesterday as examples of government "waste" by the Conservatives.

John Bercow, the shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, attacked a "scandalous" trail of waste, theft and fraud that had cost the taxpayer £1.2bn since Labour came to power. He launched a campaign to expose what he called "a flagrant contempt for the interests of the taxpayer".