A discussion website run by HMRC workers, which has been taken offline, contained the demands from staff.

Tory frontbencher Philip Hammond said there was a "crisis of management and leadership", as seen in the recent loss of 25 million child benefit records.

But an HMRC spokesman refused to comment on the claims.

The website, called Disgruntled Lemmings, has now been taken offline, but the Tories have obtained cached pages of postings via Google.

'Head massage'

On them, one member of staff lists their demands.

One is for stress balls: "A cheap idea, these could be placed on every desk within easy reach for people to squeeze away the tension after dealing with an awkward caller or a difficult piece of post."

Another is: "A punchbag could be kept in a staff room/chillout area for those on breaks to take out their frustrations on."

The contributor also says HMRC "could consider offering discounts for stress-relieving therapies such as Indian head massage, aromatherapy and reflexology".

A separate visitor to the site writes: "I like the idea of ExCom [executive committee]-modelled punchbags... Imagine how much fitter we'd all be!"

It was revealed last week that two CDs containing 25 million child benefit records had gone missing after being put in the internal post by an HMRC worker.

Mr Hammond, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said: "Is it any wonder that such a catastrophic lapse of data security has occurred, when staff morale at HM Revenue and Customs is at rock bottom?

"There is clearly a crisis of management and leadership at HMRC which has allowed systemic failures to occur."

An HMRC spokesman said: "It's not our website. I'm not going to comment on a non-HMRC website."

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More double talk from a lying government, these are the same people who sent me a letter this week telling me that they may have given my bank account number and address and phone number and date of birth and mothers maiden name and telephone number and wife's breast size to................ Well, anybody, they have no idea, My personal details could now be in the possession of Mick Jackson's child selector (sorry, minder) but they have no fucking clue!

And these people have the audacity to tell ME that THEY are stressed!!!!