HIGH FLYERS
AMONG THOSE VISITED BY MPS ON LUXURY TRIPS
have appalling and repressive human rights records.
“They aren’t paying for MPs to fly and stay there because they’re friendly people, it’s because they want to buy influence.
“We would hope the MPs use them as a chance to ask tough questions and hold their hosts to account. If that’s the case then they should tell us.
“By accepting these donations, MPs risk sending a message of support to the regimes and legitimising their terrible practices.”
SNP MPs Angus MacNeil and Lisa Cameron were among 10 politicians who went on a £10,000-a-head trip to Hong Kong, paid for by the country’s government.
According to MacNeil’s register of interests, the purpose of February’s five-day trip for the all-party delegation was to “support British businesses operating in Hong Kong, and deepen the knowledge of parliamentarians of Hong Kong’s political, social and economic development”.
Cameron, MP for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow, also visited Tokyo, Brussels and Berlin on all-party parliamentary group trips in 2016-17.
Fellow SNP MPs Drew Hendry and Philippa Whitford also went on the four-day trip to Berlin and Brandenburg last September, paid for by Rolls-Royce.
The purpose of their trip was to meet German politicians and businesses to discuss the impact of Brexit.
Livingston MP Hannah Bardell flew to Palm Springs, California, in February to speak at an aviation conference.
The £ 911 trip was paid for by the state’s Air Quality Research Centre.
SNP MPs Martyn Day and Chris Law went to the Maldives in July last year to meet “opposition and government MPs of all parties, political prisoners and members of the judiciary”.
The £ 4634-a-head visit was paid for by the Maldives government. Stephen Gethins visited Washington, Poland, Srebrenica and Morocco.
An SNP spokesman said: “SNP MPs raise human rights at home and abroad and at every opportunity on these trips.
“The issues and their records are raised consistently, whether in the UAE or in Qatar, for example, where officials at the highest level and ministers were tackled by SNP members – not just about their human rights record but the treatment of foreign workers preparing for the World Cup.”
Carmichael said of his Qatar visit: “We raised human rights concerns at the very highest level.
“The Qatari government were in no doubt about the views that we held. I raised, for example, LGBT rights on a number of occasions. The focus of the delegation was looking at labour rights.”
Three of Scotland’s newest MPs – Conservatives John Lamont, Douglas Ross and Ross Thomson – went on a five-day trip to Israel and the West Bank last August when they were MSPs.
According to the MPs’ register of interests, they went on a £2000-a-head fact-finding mission for MSPs paid for by Conservative Friends of Israel.
A party spokesman said: “Scottish Conservative MPs and MSPs have been proud to visit Israel in recent years, and look forward to doing so in future.”