Duke f lies into new private jet hypocrisy row

PRINCE Harry previously described climate change as one of the ‘most pressing issues we are facing’.

But that did not stop the Duke and Duchess of Sussex returning to California on a ‘Russian oligarch kind’ of private jet after visiting the UK for the Platinum Jubilee.

The couple were accused of ‘enormous hypocrisy’ for choosing to fly on the 12seater Bombardier Global Express, which is estimated to emit ten times more carbon per passenger than a commercial flight over the 5,500-mile distance. Harry and Meghan rushed back from Farnborough Airport in Surrey on Sunday on the plane boasting a ‘private state room’.

They are believed to have flown to the UK with their children Archie and Lilibet on a private jet, despite the many scheduled flights from Los Angeles to London.

US firm Jet Edge, which leases the Bombardier for charter flights, prices a oneway transatlantic flight at £160,000. The 11hour flight was estimated to have emitted 60 tons of carbon, compared with 1.4 tons per passenger on a commercial flight from London to Los Angeles.

Royal writer Tom Quinn said: ‘They tell people to look after the environment and then they don’t look after it themselves. It’s enormously hypocritical.’

He told The Times that the Bombardier was a ‘Russian oligarch kind of jet’ for those who ‘just don’t care’. Harry told Oprah Winfrey last year: ‘We need to do better about stopping or allowing the things that are causing so much harm.’

In response to criticism of the couple for taking four private jet flights in 11 days in 2019, the prince said ‘unique circumstances’ around his family’s safety meant he could not always fly commercially. ■ A plane carrying the Earl and Countess of Wessex to Gibraltar returned to Heathrow after take-off yesterday as a precaution due to a ‘technical issue’.