British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spent as much as $617,249 (£500,000) in under a fortnight on private jet trips, government data has shown. No sooner was the data released, opposition parties cornered Sunak saying he remains out of touch while ordinary Britons face a grave cost-of-living crisis.
The numbers were released by the cabinet office and detailed that Sunak spent £108,000 on a jet to travel to and from the COP27 summit in Egypt last year. A week later, the 10, Downing Street resident jetted off to the southeast Asian country of Indonesia to attend the G20 summit in Bali. The total cost of the round trip came about to £340,000.
In early December 2022, Sunak embarked on a day trip to Latvia and Estonia where the cost of the jet came down to £62,000. The data showed that another £20,000 was spent on Sunak’s accommodation, meals and visas – throughout the mentioned trips.
The Liberal Democrats slammed Sunak for the spending and said, “This is a shocking waste of taxpayer’s money at a time when most people are struggling to pay their bills or put food on the table. Yet again this Conservative government is completely out of touch.”
This is a shocking waste of taxpayer’s money at a time when most people are struggling to pay their bills or put food on the table.
Yet again this Conservative government is completely out of touch. pic.twitter.com/3BvtyLdhj8
— Liberal Democrats (@LibDems) March 31, 2023
Meanwhile, the party’s energy and climate spokesperson Wera Hobhouse tweeted, “They can pretend to care about a greener future with their so-called ‘Green Day’, but in reality they do not care.”
The release of the report comes days after it was revealed that Sunak’s capital gains income between 2019 and 2022 stood at £3.8 million while the investment income breached the £600,000 mark.
Notably, this is not the first instance when PM Sunak has come under the scanner for his extravagant expenditures. Recently, it was reported that Sunak got the local electricity grid upgraded for his $4,80,000 (£400,000) private heating swimming pool in the North Yorkshire home.
The Labour Party earlier this year announced it was launching a campaign targetting the Conservatives for indiscriminate spending of taxpayers’ money on luxury travel and hotels.
(With inputs from agencies)
