The Government has too many ministers - and around a third should be sacked, MPs said today (Tuesday).

An inquiry led by Cannock Chase MP Tony Wright (Lab) warned the country had more Ministers now than during the days of the British Empire.

Government had grown even though Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland now had devolved administrations with their own, local ministers.

And the number of people on the Government payroll had reduced the independence of Parliament, said Dr Wright.

Their salaries are paid for the taxpayer but holding Ministerial office means they have to vote with the Government in order to keep their jobs.

A report by the Public Administration Select Committee, chaired by Dr Wright, notes that there are currently 119 ministers in the United Kingdom Government,.

But in the years around 1950 the government created the welfare state, undertook major nationalisations and administered the British Empire with only 81 ministers.

And the Indian national government runs a country of over a billion people with only 78 ministers.

Dr Wright said: “The number of ministers has been growing ever since the 1950s, driven in part by the desire of Prime Ministers to hand out patronage positions and secure votes in the House of Commons.

“Some junior ministers do important and difficult jobs. However, there are too many and it is absurd that civil servants should be having to make work for those who are underemployed.

“The size of the payroll vote is excessive and reduces effective scrutiny of government decisions. It cannot be the case that the United Kingdom needs more ministers at a national level than India, a country twenty times its size, or right that the number of ministers should have continued to increase despite the end of Empire, large-scale privatisation and devolution.”

West Midlands Ministers include:

Bob Ainsworth (Coventry North East), Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence.

Ian Austin (Dudley North), Minister of State for Regional Affairs and Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the Department for Communities and Local Government

Liam Byrne (Hodge Hill), Chief Secretary, HM Treasury

Mike Foster (Worcester), Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for International Development

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change and Deputy Leader of the House of Lords

David Kidney (Stafford), Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Energy and Climate Change

Steve McCabe (Hall Green), Lord Commissioner, HM Treasury (an honorary title given to a Government whip)

Pat McFadden (Wolverhampton South East), Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Ian Pearson (Dudley South), Economic Secretary, HM Treasury

John Spellar (Warley), Comptroller, HM Household (an honorary title given to a Government whip)

David Wright (Telford) Assistant Whip, HM Treasury