Speaker bills taxpayers £172 for chauffeur ... to avoid a 15-minute walk!
JOHN BERCOW has been accused of ‘obscene waste’ after he billed taxpayers £172 for a car journey that would have taken less than 15 minutes to walk.
The Commons Speaker clocked up the bill f or a 0.7 mile chauffeur- driven trip between Parliament and Carlton House Terrace to open a communications conference.
He also spent £367 on a car journey to Luton to deliver a speech on MPs restoring their reputation after the expenses scandal.
Figures unearthed after a Freedom of I nformation r equest revealed his travel expenses which included trips to Australia, New Zealand, Burma, South Africa, the US, Finland and Austria.
A Court of Appeal ruling on the scope of Freedom of Information Act disclosures forced Parliament to supply individual receipts covering the last three years of his travel. The material revealed that Mr Bercow has used a firm called Little’s Chauffeur Drive for his car journeys, as well as WestOne Cars and the Government Car Service.
He took an official car to Canterbury to see Justin Welby enthroned Travel costs: John Bercow ran up bills for hotels and chauffeured car trips as Archbishop in 2013 at a cost of £524. He racked up the £172 bill for his 0.7 mile journey in April that year and also spent £144 on a car to attend a dinner hosted by charity Stonewall at the Dorchester Hotel, 1.5 miles from Parliament.
A one- way drive from King’s Cross station to Speaker’s House after a day trip to Leeds in July 2013 cost £168.
In 2013 Mr Bercow also took an official car to Baroness Thatcher’s funeral at St Paul’s Cathedral, 1.8 miles away, costing £158.
That year he and an aide charged £193 for dinner while staying at the five-star Strand hotel in Rangoon during an official visit to Burma.
Andy Silvester, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said yesterday: ‘This is an obscene waste of money and shows appalling judgment from whoever made the arrangements.’
A spokesman for the Speaker said: ‘One of the Speaker’s duties is to represent Parliament at home and abroad. The Speaker is always mindful of costs, and travels standard class in the UK and when away from home, stays in hotels that offer value for money.
‘In some instances a car service is required to facilitate timing requirements. In line with the Speaker’s commitment to greater transparency details of these costs have been published on a quarterly basis since 2013.’