Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar will today criticise the SNP for establishing a network of unelected public bodies, even though Sir Keir Starmer has set up one quango every week since the General Election.

Mr Sarwar will use his New Year speech to say public money is being wasted using quangos to cover up government failure.

He will call for public sector reform to deliver value for money and highlight “the explosion of quangos under the SNP” which now number 131 and cost the taxpayer a “jaw-dropping” £6.6 billion a year.

Mr Sarwar will tell an audience at Glasgow University that the SNP government has created “:a growing bureaucratic monster – a sprawling network of unelected public bodies that drain public money and deliver little in return.”

He will say: “These so-called quangos were created to manage everything from healthcare to education, but far too often they’ve done more to complicate and obstruct than to improve services.

“It has created a culture that means when something goes wrong, the SNP government tries to dodge responsibility by blaming someone you’ve never heard of.

“A Scottish Labour Government will end Scotland’s quango culture and better spend your money.”

However, Mr Sarwar faces accusations of hypocrisy after it emerged that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has set up 25 quangos and so-called taskforces and advisory councils in the first six months in office – equal to an average of one a week.

They include Great British Energy and the Solar Taskforce, as well as Border Security Command, which largely replicates the functions of the former Small Boats Operational Command, and the new Regulatory Innovation Office which is similar to the Regulatory Horizons Council.

Former Conservative party chairman Richard Holden warned that Labour risked stifling the economy.

“Labour establishes a quango to duplicate work already under way in the public sector and the outcome is all-too predictable: more bureaucracy, more regulation and higher taxes for working Brits.”

Former Tory business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg accused Labour of using quangos to make it harder for the public to hold ministers to account.

John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers will wonder who actually governs Britain given the proliferation of unelected, unaccountable quangos.”