Five Whitehall departments have reached spending agreements with the Treasury, ahead of next month's spending review.

The Treasury, Cabinet Office, Foreign Office plus the environment and communities departments have reached agreement on cutting their spending.

As a result ministers Eric Pickles and Caroline Spelman have joined the "star chamber", which rules on departments which cannot agree cuts.

Labour said the five agreeing cuts were only a "tiny" proportion of the budget.

Most government departments have been told to agree 25% cuts by next month.

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