DAVID Mundell was last night accused of “wasteful spending” after it emerged his department has a larger team of special advisers than the UK Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

The news followed revelations last month that taxpayers are paying almost £500,000 a year for the Scotland Office’s soaring number of public relations staff, which also includes "special advisers" – political appointees who are paid from the public purse and work alongside civil servants.

Last night, SNP MSP James Dornan criticised Mundell’s decision to recruit a new spin doctor after an advert recently appeared on a government website.

The advert called for someone to support the “core objectives” of the department – including “strengthening and sustaining the Union”. The salary for the job was up to £36,061.

“As his colleagues in the Treasury impose massive austerity cuts on Scotland, David Mundell cannot justify this wasteful spending in his pointless department – he must halt the recruitment of any new press officers now,” he said.

“This new job is yet more proof that the Scotland Office’s only role is as a marketing campaign for the Union.

"Last year, the Tories achieved their worst election result in Scotland since 1865 and the Scottish Secretary is their sole MP north of the Border – no wonder he is recruiting an army of press officers to support him.”

According to information released by the UK Government, the Scotland Office, with a budget of £9 million, has three full-time special advisers. The UK’s Department of Health – which is responsible for a £120 billion budget – has one part-time and two full-time special advisers.

One of Mundell’s special advisers, the former Tory MP Mary Macleod, was an unpaid special adviser up to August 31 last year, as she received a Resettlement Grant when she lost her parliamentary seat at in May.

In December it emerged Mundell’s department’s PR budget had risen by 437 per cent since 2010-11, to £474,000 during 2015/16.

A spokesman for the Scotland Office said the new press officer’s job was included in the 2015/16 budget.

“This is a silly story,"he said. "The press officer position is included in the overall number of posts for this year, so the claim about it being additional staff is factually wrong. People in Scotland have a right to hear about the work of both their governments, and the Scotland Office spends at least ten times less on its communications team than the Scottish Government. The advert sets out the objectives of the Scotland Office, one of which is to strengthen the devolution settlement and Scotland’s role in the wider UK.” l In a separate development yesterday, Mundell called for a “reboot” of inter-government relationships after May’s Holyrood elections.

He said: “My message is that we need to reboot the relationship between the UK Government and Westminster, and the Scottish Government and Holyrood.

“In the run-up to the Scottish elections I don’t expect any big changes in this dynamic, that really would be naive. This is a very highly political period. But after May, I do think there is a real window of opportunity as, EU referendum aside, we have a full four years until the next Westminster election.” l Last night, responding to reports that Mundell was supporting a referendum on EU membership in June, Europe minister Humza Yousaf said: “Both the Scottish Parliament elections and the EU referendum are vitally important events for Scotland – and neither campaign should be drowned out by the other.

“Perhaps David Mundell hopes a referendum in June will provide cover for a poor Tory result in May.”