LONDON (AFP) -- Britain's three main political parties spent a record 40 million pounds (71 million dollars) on advisors, stunts and even make-up to woo voters in last year's election, newspapers said Tuesday.

The revelations add to a furor over campaign financing after allegations that Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party and the main rival Conservatives promised rich supporters privileged titles in return for election-year loans.

Details about the parties' extravagant spending sprees in the run up to the May 5, 2005 poll were splashed across front pages. "The price of spin," said The Times, while The Daily Telegraph wrote: "Parties spent a fortune on election aides and make-up."

The Independent covered page one with a list of election receipts for Labour, the Conservatives and the second opposition Liberal Democrats.

It ranged from small items -- such as 53.46 pounds for a car to drive Blair to Buckingham Palace, including two hours' waiting time while he asked Queen Elizabeth II formally to dissolve Parliament for the election -- to the large, such as 250,000 pounds for a Tory Party helicopter.

The figures, described in The Times as "the most expensive election in modern times" were released on Thursday by the Electoral Commission.

Blair's party won the election for a third consecutive time but with a sharply reduced majority despite spending the most on its campaign -- some 17.94 million pounds, newspapers said.

The Conservatives came a close second, with a bill of 17.85 million pounds, followed by the Liberal Democrats on 4.3 million pounds.

The biggest beneficiaries of this cash were election advisors.

Labour paid a company run by Mark Penn, a Washington-based advisor to Hillary Clinton and former aide to her husband, Bill, 530,372 pounds.

The ex-U.S. president recommended Penn's services to counter the impact of Australian guru Lynton Crosby, who had been hired to help the Conservatives, according to The Times.

Labour coughed up a further 143,011 pounds for the services of consultant Philip Gould and 47,000 pounds for just four months of work by Blair's former communications chief, Alastair Campbell.

The Conservatives, under then leader Michael Howard, also spent heavily on political sages, including 441,146 million pounds for Lynton, who is credited with repeatedly getting Australia's Prime Minister John Howard reelected.

A second consultant, Rupert Darwall, charged the party 97,000 pounds.

Transport devoured cash, with Labour spending 372,072 pounds on a campaign bus for Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, The Daily Telegraph said.

Blair ran up a relatively modest bill of 61,000 pounds for using his security protected car, according to The Guardian.

Image played a big part in pushing up the election costs.

The Electoral Commission's figures confirmed that 7,700 pounds was spent on styling the hair of the prime minister's wife, Cherie Blair -- a figure reported with much fanfare last week.

Cherie Blair was by no means alone in wanting to look her best. Howard clocked up a 3,638-pound make-up bill, while his Liberal Democrat counterpart, then leader Charles Kennedy, spent 1,500 pounds. He also spent almost 5,000 pounds on six new suits.

As for election stunts, the Conservatives paid 3,500 pounds for animal outfits and hired actors to be "groundhogs" to attack the government's economic record. Labour, for its part, spent 299 pounds on five Star Trek suits to hound a Conservative MP.

The election receipts sparked anger among party activists at a time when Labour and the Conservatives are under pressure for accepting large loans.

"Some of this spending is disgusting," said Labour MP Peter Kilfoyle.

"What value did we get spending 500,000 pounds on a U.S. guru? All that happened was that we lost seats and votes," he told The Guardian.