Sunday, December 17, 2023
Helicopter perks
So, Sunak has done it again. The Prime Minister's obsession with the privileges and the perks of office really sets him apart from his predecessors, and that is saying something.
The Guardian reports that Rishi Sunak took a £16,000 one-way trip to Leeds on a helicopter courtesy of a firm owned by Frank Hester, the Tory megadonor, taking the total for the prime minister’s donor-funded air travel to more than £100,000 this year:
The prime minister once again showed his fondness for short-haul air travel as he took a helicopter from Battersea to Leeds Bradford airport last month – a journey of about 90 minutes. The quickest train from London to Leeds takes about 2 hours and 13 minutes, and costs in the region of £60 off-peak.
Sunak registered the trip as paid for by The Phoenix Partnership (TPP), which as a group has won more than £135m of NHS and government contracts to supply IT since April 2020.
Labour said it was the fourth helicopter ride taken by Sunak that was funded by wealthy Conservative party donors who have been paying tens of thousands of pounds to allow the prime minister to avoid public transport or long car journeys. His regular private air travel has also raised questions about the prime minister’s commitment to tackling the climate crisis.
Hester, who is sole owner of the company, made a £5m donation to the Conservatives earlier this year – the joint biggest gift by a living donor. TPP has previously said it was “unequivocally apolitical”.
The paper adds that Sunak has long been criticised for taking flights and helicopters for short trips, including an RAF chopper from London to Dover, despite the trip being just over an hour by train. But this is not the worst of it.
The Mirror tells us that the Prime Minister travelled to a political event in Teesside by train on Friday - meanwhile a taxpayer-funded RAF jet was flown up to wait overnight for him, before flying him to a far-right political conference in Rome, in apparent breach of the ministerial code.
They add that the Ministerial code bans the PM from diverting government planes for journeys “to or from party business or constituency visits.” Exceptions can only be made when the time factor is “critical” - and even then, only when the only additional cost is “the extra flying time needed to carry out the additional landing and take-off.”
Another incident is recorded, namely that on April 23 this year, Sunak used an Embraer 500 jet to attend the Scottish and Welsh Conservative Conferences, and later declared that the £36,500 cost of the plane for him and his aides had been paid for by Tory donor Akhil Tripathi.
It is little wonder that he is rowing back on his government's commitment to tackling climate change.
The Guardian reports that Rishi Sunak took a £16,000 one-way trip to Leeds on a helicopter courtesy of a firm owned by Frank Hester, the Tory megadonor, taking the total for the prime minister’s donor-funded air travel to more than £100,000 this year:
The prime minister once again showed his fondness for short-haul air travel as he took a helicopter from Battersea to Leeds Bradford airport last month – a journey of about 90 minutes. The quickest train from London to Leeds takes about 2 hours and 13 minutes, and costs in the region of £60 off-peak.
Sunak registered the trip as paid for by The Phoenix Partnership (TPP), which as a group has won more than £135m of NHS and government contracts to supply IT since April 2020.
Labour said it was the fourth helicopter ride taken by Sunak that was funded by wealthy Conservative party donors who have been paying tens of thousands of pounds to allow the prime minister to avoid public transport or long car journeys. His regular private air travel has also raised questions about the prime minister’s commitment to tackling the climate crisis.
Hester, who is sole owner of the company, made a £5m donation to the Conservatives earlier this year – the joint biggest gift by a living donor. TPP has previously said it was “unequivocally apolitical”.
The paper adds that Sunak has long been criticised for taking flights and helicopters for short trips, including an RAF chopper from London to Dover, despite the trip being just over an hour by train. But this is not the worst of it.
The Mirror tells us that the Prime Minister travelled to a political event in Teesside by train on Friday - meanwhile a taxpayer-funded RAF jet was flown up to wait overnight for him, before flying him to a far-right political conference in Rome, in apparent breach of the ministerial code.
They add that the Ministerial code bans the PM from diverting government planes for journeys “to or from party business or constituency visits.” Exceptions can only be made when the time factor is “critical” - and even then, only when the only additional cost is “the extra flying time needed to carry out the additional landing and take-off.”
Another incident is recorded, namely that on April 23 this year, Sunak used an Embraer 500 jet to attend the Scottish and Welsh Conservative Conferences, and later declared that the £36,500 cost of the plane for him and his aides had been paid for by Tory donor Akhil Tripathi.
It is little wonder that he is rowing back on his government's commitment to tackling climate change.
