MP who sparked row accused of ‘freeloading’ over luxury hotel trip
THE shadow minister who sparked the jerk rice storm has been accused of ‘freeloading’ after spending a week at a luxury hotel in Sicily for a two-day tourism conference.
Dawn Butler stayed at the Hilton Giardini Naxos, which boasts panoramic views of the Ionian Sea and a private beach, earlier this summer.
The trip was funded by the Institute of Travel and Tourism, which was staging a conference at the resort.
According to the register of MPs’ interests, Miss Butler arrived on May 30 – five days before the gathering kicked off. She headed back to the UK on June 5, a day before it finished. Aides said she had delivered a speech entitled ‘The higher you build your barriers the taller I become.’
A spokesman said Miss Butler left early to be back in Parliament, but did not say why she had been there before the start of the conference or if she paid for anything herself.
The trip raised eyebrows among Labour MPs, with one saying it looked like a ‘blatant freebie’. The flights and accommodation are estimated to be worth £1,160 on the register entry. In April, Miss Butler went on a ten-day visit to Los Angeles for LGBT awards. Flights and accommodation for Miss Butler and a member of staff came to £14,200 – with entrepreneur Anthony Watson picking up the bill.
James Price, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘It’s incredibly important that MPs can justify the luxurious trips that they go on, so that we can trust our elected representatives are working for us and not freeloading.
After her attack on Jamie Oliver, Miss Butler was ridiculed online over a snap of her wearing an Indian sari at a Hindu temple in London in 2016 – with some suggesting it could be the same ‘cultural appropriation’ she was accusing the TV chef of.