Real cost of Corbyn’s Tunisia trip in doubt

JEREMY CORBYN is facing fresh scrutiny over his controversial wreathlaying trip to Tunisia, after documents surfaced yesterday raising doubts over the cost of the trip.

The Labour leader has faced widespread condemnation over the trip to Tunis in 2014, during which he was pictured visiting a cemetery where a number of Palestinians linked to the 1972 Munich massacre are buried.

He has always insisted the undeclared visit fell below the £660 threshold required for declaration, and was recently exonerated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, which accepted his estimated costs of £656.

However, documents recently supplied by Mr Corbyn to the watchdog have raised serious questions about the costs accrued.

A dossier of evidence, published on the Commissioner’s website, shows that whilst Mr Corbyn estimated his flight costs at just £410, an equivalent business flight to Tunis alone now costs £466. In total, an outbound flight from Heathrow to Tunis, returning to London City Airport via Frankfurt, was found to cost £732, well above the threshold.

It comes less than 24 hours after emails emerged showing that he had asked staff to “keep it [the trip] cheap” in order to ensure it came under the threshold.

In an email that has since been redacted, Mr Corbyn wrote: “It sounds alright but will need to be very clear who is paying for it as I will have to declare anything over £600, unless thy [sic] can keep it cheap.”

Approached for comment last night, a Labour spokesman said the Parliamentary Commissioner had investigated the trip and had agreed it did not need to be registered.

They added that Mr Corbyn had always “sought to live up to the very highest standards of transparency and accountability”.

The Daily Telegraph understands that during their correspondence with the watchdog, Mr Corbyn’s team claimed the flights would have been cheaper because they were subject to a discount obtained by the Tunisian presidency.