And the gold for sheer cheek goes to... Baroness Brazen
BARONESS Scotland, the political head of the Commonwealth, was embroiled in another row last night – this time over a £45,000 publiclyfunded ‘junket’ to the Olympics.
She told a reporter she was in Rio de Janeiro for only ‘a few days’ to meet officials, open a one-day Commonwealth conference and visit the athletes’ village.
But The Mail on Sunday can reveal that she is spending at least nine days in the Olympic city.
Accompanied by her husband, she is staying in a hotel dubbed the ‘hilltop hacienda’, whose A-list guests have included rapper Snoop Dogg and the late Amy Winehouse.
The length of Scotland’s stay in Brazil has surprised her staff as her predecessors made what are understood to be only brief visits to the Games; three days at most.
And Sports Minister Tracey Crouch will be in Rio for less than a week, while Culture Secretary Karen Bradley is staying for only three days. Scotland, who has been dubbed ‘Baroness Brazen’, attended the opening ceremony at the Maracana stadium with her barrister husband Richard Mawhinney, who was seen chatting to dignitaries and drinking champagne in the VIP box. Over the previous few days, Scotland held a series of meetings, including one with Australian sports officials by the pool of her secluded hotel, the Santa Teresa, where rooms range from £270 to £1,340 a night. Last night, MPs questioned why Scotland needed to stay at the Games for so long. Tory MP Stuart Andrew said: ‘It’s natural that somebody from the Commonwealth should be there but I’d question why she needs to be there for so
long. When the public are having to tighten their belts, so should everyone else.
‘Questions also need to be asked about whether her husband is contributing to the stay or not.’
It is the latest in a series of controversies to beset the former Labour Cabinet Minister since she was made Secretary-General of the Commonwealth in April.
Her Rio visit comes at a difficult time for the Commonwealth, which is funded by the Foreign Office as well as the other 52 member states.
It has a £6.7million hole in its pension fund and a leaked Secretariat document warned ‘there may be a need for staff redundancies’.
She has been criticised for lavishing a fortune on her grace-and-favour Mayfair residence, even ordering a designer makeover of her personal bathroom, according to leaked reports.
And last month The Mail on Sunday revealed that she was accused by a critic of securing the job of Secretary-General through an ‘utterly corrupt process’.
It was also disclosed that Scotland handed contracts worth hundreds of thousands of pounds to her close friend Lord Patel of Bradford, without putting the jobs out to other bidders.
Scotland insists she has ‘hit the ground running’ since taking office and has ‘an ambitious agenda’.
She flew to Rio last Tuesday in business class from Heathrow, accompanied by at least one assistant, who is thought to be staying at a different hotel. Along with her husband, she was met by a chauffeur from a specialist security firm and driven in a black Hyundai Azera to their hotel. The driver has been on call ever since. The following morning Scotland had two meetings at her hotel; the second by the pool, which boasts a Veuve Clicquot champagne bar and is set in tropical gardens with sweeping views. Scotland, who is teetotal, drank only mineral water.
On her third day in Rio, she opened the 8th Commonwealth Sports Ministers Meeting, which discussed ‘threats to sports integrity on sustainable development’. Afterwards, asked by a reporter how long she was staying in Rio, Scotland replied: ‘I will be staying here for a few days and I will be working with the chief of the Commonwealth Games.’ Later, however, the Santa Teresa Hotel confirmed that she was staying with them for nine nights and was not due to check out until next Thursday. Other sources have claim that the trip in total is for 11 days, with Scotland not expected to return to the UK until August 13.
On Friday, Scotland took her seat in the VIP box an hour and a half before the opening ceremony.
She clapped athletes from all the Commonwealth countries but reserved her warmest response for Dominica, the Caribbean country of her birth, rising to her feet and dancing a jig as she applauded.
A Commonwealth spokesman did not dispute the length or cost of the visit, adding: “The Secretary-General is in Rio for the Commonwealth Sports Ministers Meeting and to promote the sport for development agenda. This is a working trip. She continues to be in contact with the office and working on a number of issues, for example, Belize.’
He added that, as a guest of the International Olympic Committee, she did not pay for tickets to events.