While the Government has been busy cutting funding for services including policing, one element of public spending is higher than it has ever been – the cost of spin doctors.

Ministers have admitted that they are employing more spin doctors than ever. And their wage bill has increased by £1 million in just a year.

The admission has been condemned by Labour MPs.

Black Country MP John Spellar (Lab, Warley) said: “It seems there’s no austerity when it comes to spending money on spin doctors to try to get this hopeless government re-elected.”

Officially, spin doctors are known as special advisers. Politicians and journalists in Westminster call them “SPADs” for short.

They also advise Ministers on policy, but for many of them a major part of their role is dealing with the media.

When they give quotes to newspapers, they are often described as “a source” or “a Whitehall source”.

The difference between a SPAD and an ordinary press officer working for the Government is that press officers are civil servants who are not allowed to take part in politics.

By contrast, SPADs are fiercely loyal to Minister they serve, and there is nothing to stop them attacking rival political parties when they brief journalists – or even rival politicians within the same party.

Journalists on both national and regional newspapers will frequently contact SPADs, asking for an explanation of Government policies or for a comment from the relevant Minister.

The Cabinet Office has published a list of SPADs and, in some cases, their salary, revealing that there are 98 of them –up from 85 last year.

Their wage bill is £7.2 million, up from £6.2 million in a year.

Recent additions include Graeme Wilson, a former Sun journalist, who is now a SPAD working for David Cameron and paid £110,000.

Other high-profile SPADs include Craig Oliver, previously a BBC journalist, who also works for David Cameron and is paid £140,000. Chancellor George Osborne’s spokesman is Ramesh Chhabra, known as Mesh, who is paid £60,000.

Opposition politicians have their own political advisers who would expect to become SPADs if their party wins the next election.

Ed Miliband’s advisers currently include former Daily Mirror journalist Bob Roberts, whose salary is paid by the Labour Party.

Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude, speaking for the Government, said that the number of SPADs had increased because of the Coalition government, which meant the Liberal Democrats needed their own spin doctors.

Famous spin doctors have included Alastair Campbell (Tony Blair’s spin doctor), former News Of The World editor Andy Coulson (a former SPAD who worked for David Cameron) and Jo Moore (who was reported to have described 9/11 as “a good day to bury bad news”).