Election U-turn 'cost Labour £1m'

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The Guardian reported that the sum was blown on booking poster sites, printing leaflets, hiring staff and preparing a media centre for the campaign that never was.

And the paper said that Labour's spending dwarfed that of the Conservatives, whose bill for the abortive poll it put at £200,000.

If correct, the wasted cash comes at a difficult time for Labour, which reported debts of £25 million in its last accounts and suffered a big drop in donations after last year's cash-for-honours affair.

Final details of the actual cost of the operation are expected to be revealed to members of Labour's National Executive Committee in a report from general secretary Peter Watt by conference call on Monday, said The Guardian.

The paper quoted unnamed Labour and union sources as saying that:

:: Some three million letters had been printed only to be binned after Mr Brown announced on October 6 that there would be no election;

:: Furniture and equipment was ordered and technicians hired to install a media centre in central London;

:: Hundreds of pre-paid posters sites were booked and staff were recruited to work at union headquarters on marginal seat campaigns.

Poster sites and mobile posters booked by the Tories for a possible election are reportedly now being used to campaign for a European referendum. There was no immediate response from Labour to requests for a comment.