David Lammy's department has paid £176,000 to social media influencers to promote Labour government policies, including measures relating to justice that critics have characterised as "soft". The disclosure is likely to renew scrutiny of ministerial spending on influencer marketing, a practice that has drawn criticism in the past for using public money to promote government messaging outside traditional media scrutiny.

The figure reportedly covers payments made to a range of online content creators tasked with promoting government initiatives to their followers, rather than through conventional press or advertising channels. The report was compiled by the Daily Mail's home affairs correspondent, though full details of the specific influencers involved, the individual campaigns funded, and the timeframe of the spending were not included in the available article text.