TREASURY ORDERS REVIEW OF QUANGOS

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liam Byrne said he had ordered a detailed breakdown in a bid to "make sure every penny of public money goes to front-line services".

His pledge came days before Tory leader David Cameron, who has made cutting the "astonishing" pay of quango heads a prominent pre-election pledge, is to unveil his own crackdown.

Mr Cameron's spokeswoman dismissed as "total rubbish" a claim by the Cabinet minister that the Opposition had plans to establish at least 17 new quangos if they took power.

The numbers had ballooned over Labour's decade in charge, she said, making their pledges to clamp down now laughable - promising detailed Tory plans to cut them would be set out on Monday.

"I am determined that every penny of public money goes to front-line services. I've ordered a review of what public bodies do, and how they do it, to feed into the pre-Budget report in November," Mr Byrne said.

Campaigners say that despite receiving £35 billion a year of taxpayers' money, the non-departmental public bodies exist in a "twilight zone", unaccountable to voters or the market.

Mr Cameron, who will set out his proposals in a speech to the Reform think tank, has accused ministers of setting up too many quangos.

But Mr Byrne said he had identified 17 being proposed by the Tories if they took power, including their Office of Budget Responsibility and an independent aid watchdog.