The Rishi life on taxpayers’ cash
Tories rack up enormous bills on five-star jaunts
Rishi Sunak and fellow Tory bigwigs have spent millions treating themselves to five- star luxury on the taxpayers’ tab.
Ministers are supposed to stay in the most cost-effective hotels, under official guidelines.
And 10 years ago, the Commons Public Accounts Committee called for fewer f ive- star digs and more second-class travel.
But that fell on deaf ears, according to a Labour study of spending on Whitehall’s credit card, known as the Government Procurement Card.
On a trip to Venice in July 2021, the Treasury spent £ 3217 at the five-star Hotel Danieli and £1361 at four-star Hotel Bonvecchiati.
That was for then-chancellor Rishi Sunak and 11 others at t h e G2 0 summit. Sunak was only there for one night.
Alok Sharma ran up the most bills – £ 220,817 for 66 overseas trips over two years to September 2022 – going to talks about cl imate change a s president of Cop26. Two nights at the five-star Tianjin Binhai One Hotel in China cost £9238 for him and 10 aides, £ 420 per person per night, in September 2021. His jaunts also included a £ 4233 stay at the f i v e - s t a r Fou r Seasons in Seoul,
South Korea, from November 4 to 8, 2021.
Other Tories living it up included then- investment minister Lord Grimstone. He and a secretary stayed at Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Ritz Carlton, one of the world’s poshest hotels, in 2021. Two nights were complimentary but Whitehall paid for a third, plus all three nights for his aide, costing £ 3041 – or £760 a night.
Cardholders spent £ 120,000 on Airbnbs in six months to October, an average of £2342 per transaction.
A trip to the Paralympics in 2021 for Therese Coffey cost the Department for Work and Pensions £ 6177 and £ 5810 for f lights to Tokyo for the then-secretary of state and another.
There is no claim of illegal ity but Labour’s Angela Rayner said: “Ministers are living the high life and treat ing taxpayers l ike a cash machine.”