Carney racked up £50,000 in travel expenses in three months

THE Bank of England governor spent more than £50,000 on travel for just three months work, it has been revealed.

Amid rising criticism over high expenses claims from senior officials at the Bank, Mark Carney spent about £16,800 a month between March and May – totalling £50,664 – on foreign business travel, car hire and taxis.

It comes after Mr Carney, who earned nearly £900,000 last year, and two of his closest advisers, Donald Kohn and Anil Kashyap, were forced to justify their ‘staggering’ claims to a select committee in June.

MPs heard that Mr Carney racked up expenses of more than £300,000 from December 2015 to February 2018 – equivalent to £11,100 a month – while Mr Kohn and Mr Kashyap claimed a combined £390,000.

Further analysis by the Daily Mail revealed top brass at the Bank have claimed £1million in little over two years.

The Bank was blasted by critics who said the enormous sums had ‘ disturbing’ echoes of the MPs’ expenses scandal.

Following the hearing, a senior Bank official said it would ‘review and refresh’ its travel and expenses policy and report back to MPs.

Nicky Morgan, chairman of the Treasury select committee, said: ‘The committee will keep a watchful eye on the review, and its impact on the Bank’s expenses.’ However, the latest figures show that in the three months before the hearing, on top of Mr Carney’s £50,664, Mr Kohn and Mr Kashyap claimed expenses totalling more than £54,000 between them.

Mr Kohn spent nearly £31,000 on travel, including just three return flights from Washington to London and a further £595 on car hire and taxis.

Mr Kashyap splashed out £22,266 on three return flights from Chicago to London and a further £337 on care hire and expenses.

The Bank of England is owned by the Government and partfunded by taxpayers, but also raises money by investing cash on behalf of building societies and banks.

In June, Mr Carney attempted to defend the vast sums, saying that overseas travel expenses were justified.

But John O’Connell, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said last night that the latest figures showed the Bank of England was ‘out of touch’. ‘A reasonable expenses bill to get the job done is one thing, but taxpayers will struggle to understand how bills many times the average wage are stacked up,’ he said.

‘The governor is already one of the best-remunerated public sector employees before perks like this and a housing allowance, and when ordinary families pay their own bills from their hard- earned salaries it’s little wonder that they see the public sector elite as well out of touch.’

The Bank of England did not return requests for comment.

‘Public sector elite well out of touch’