100k miles on a Gov jet in 9mths
LIZ Truss flew almost 100,000 miles on a taxpayer-funded Government jet in just nine months as Foreign Secretary.
The top Tory used the official plane usually reserved for the Prime Minister and the royal family for 69 of the 78 flights she took between September 2021 and this month.
Most recently, she used the
VIP aircraft to fly to the G20 summit in
Indonesia – only to cut her trip short and fly straight back to drum up support for her bid to be
Prime Minister.
She waited in Bali only long enough for the jet’s crew to take their mandatory rest time before taking the 18-hour flight back to London to start her campaign.
The decision to scarper raised eyebrows among foreign diplomats, who saw the summit as a chance to challenge Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov over the invasion of Ukraine.
Ministers are expected to use scheduled flights where possible in order to be “cost-effective”. The Ministerial Code states: “Ministers must ensure that they always make efficient and costeffective arrangements. Official transport should not normally be used for travel arrangements arising from Party or private business, except where this is justified on security grounds.”
But a People investigation established Ms Truss has taken scheduled flights for no more than eight trips during her time as Foreign Secretary.
Two flights – between New York and Mexico – were confirmed to be commercial flights, while the remaining six were unconfirmed.
The Foreign Office has failed to publish cost estimates for the Foreign Secretary’s travel – usually published quarterly – since last September. But an estimate put the cost of her use of the Government jet for a five-day round trip to Australia in January at around £500,000.
It comes after it emerged
Boris Johnson sent for the jet to fly him, wife Carrie and their children home from a weekend jaunt to Cornwall. Labour’s Emily Thornberry accused the PM of using the Government jet as “his own personal taxi service”.