Monday, August 14, 2023
Frequent flyer
It has been sometime since a UK Prime Minister so ostentatiously and publicly enjoyed the trappings of office to the extent that he didn't appear to care what others thought about his behaviour. Rishi Sunak, however, appears to have reached that point in his career.
The Independent reports that the Prime Minister has taken a taxpayer-funded private flight for travel in the UK once every eight days since he has been at No 10.
The paper says that the data reveals that Sunak has already used RAF jets and helicopters for domestic journeys more frequently than any recent PM – after just seven months in office:
It comes as Greenpeace claimed Mr Sunak will “go down in history” as failing on climate change, amid fresh concern about the Tory leader’s frequent use of high-polluting travel and approach to net zero.
Mr Sunak boarded 23 domestic flights on RAF jets and helicopters aircraft across 187 days, almost one flight a week on average.
The frequency of the current PM’s taxpayer-funded flights around Britain outstrips his immediate predecessors, Liz Truss, Boris Johnson and Theresa May.
Details of the domestic the RAF’s Command Support Air Transport domestic flights were revealed in a Ministry of Defence freedom of information release to the BBC.
Ms Truss enjoyed only four domestic flights in her 49 days in charge – once every 12 days. Mr Johnson took such trips every 20 days, while Ms May made these journeys once every 13 days.
Mr Sunak has defended his repeated use of private air travel to get around the UK, calling it the “most effective use of my time”, despite calls for him to use the train when equivalent journey times are possible.
Labour has also suggested that the PM’s RAF flight to Scotland to announce new oil and gas licenses may have broken the ministerial code, which states that private planes should only be used when there is no viable scheduled flight.
Given his inevitable defeat at the next general election, I suppose he has to fit as much into the available time as he can.
The Independent reports that the Prime Minister has taken a taxpayer-funded private flight for travel in the UK once every eight days since he has been at No 10.
The paper says that the data reveals that Sunak has already used RAF jets and helicopters for domestic journeys more frequently than any recent PM – after just seven months in office:
It comes as Greenpeace claimed Mr Sunak will “go down in history” as failing on climate change, amid fresh concern about the Tory leader’s frequent use of high-polluting travel and approach to net zero.
Mr Sunak boarded 23 domestic flights on RAF jets and helicopters aircraft across 187 days, almost one flight a week on average.
The frequency of the current PM’s taxpayer-funded flights around Britain outstrips his immediate predecessors, Liz Truss, Boris Johnson and Theresa May.
Details of the domestic the RAF’s Command Support Air Transport domestic flights were revealed in a Ministry of Defence freedom of information release to the BBC.
Ms Truss enjoyed only four domestic flights in her 49 days in charge – once every 12 days. Mr Johnson took such trips every 20 days, while Ms May made these journeys once every 13 days.
Mr Sunak has defended his repeated use of private air travel to get around the UK, calling it the “most effective use of my time”, despite calls for him to use the train when equivalent journey times are possible.
Labour has also suggested that the PM’s RAF flight to Scotland to announce new oil and gas licenses may have broken the ministerial code, which states that private planes should only be used when there is no viable scheduled flight.
Given his inevitable defeat at the next general election, I suppose he has to fit as much into the available time as he can.
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