Commenting on Staffordshire County Council’s decision to recruit spin doctors for the social services department while simultaneously closing down care homes, Michael Fabricant says: "Labour controlled Staffordshire County Council has completely lost the plot. They are reacting desperately from one self-made crisis to another and it’s costing the council taxpayer a fortune. Spending money on spin doctors when care homes are facing the axe and elderly and infirm residents face an uncertain future is an obscenity. I think the Labour council has finally gone quite mad."

Social care chiefs overseeing controversial plans to axe Staffordshire’s residential and day centres are recruiting three ‘spin doctors’ on annual salaries together worth almost £100,000. Labour controlled Staffordshire County Council has paid for a large advertisement in the Guardian newspaper for a head of communications and complaints and two communications officers. The head of communications and complaints will receive between £39,132 and £40,803, while the two communications officers, one internal and the other external, will each be paid £23,175 to £26,928. On top of that, the Council will have to pay other benefits including generous pension schemes and National Insurance.