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Kate Plummer
Jan 28, 2022
Liz Truss calls £500,000 Australia trip made on government plane 'good use' ...
ITV News
Liz Truss popped to Australia on a private jet which cost the taxpayer £500,000 and people aren't best pleased.
The Independent reports that the foreign secretary made the trip this week rather than using scheduled flights which would have been faster and cheaper because of "security considerations".
A senior source from the aviation charter industry told the publication that the cost of operating Truss’s trip would have been “at least £500k” but Truss insisted her flight was reasonable.
Speaking to ITV News, she said: "I used the government plane - that is why we have a government plane: to enable government ministers to conduct government business, and that’s what I flew to Australia in.”
Asked whether she deemed its deployment a “good use” of public money, she replied: “We have a government plane precisely so that government ministers can travel.
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“Every government decision is based on value for money. We have a government plane specifically so ministers, like me in my role as foreign secretary, can go and do the work overseas which is ultimately delivering for the British people.”
Meanwhile, A Foreign Office spokesperson told the Independent: “It’s necessary for the foreign secretary to travel abroad to pursue UK interests around security, trade and technology, as she did during this visit to Australia.
“This trip used government transport and was fully within rules set out in the Ministerial Code.”
Despite the defence, people are not thrilled.
Labour's deputy leader, Angela Rayner, said the use of the private jet showed “the public exactly quite how little respect this Conservative government has for taxpayers’ money”.
She said: “It is obscene that government ministers are jet-setting yet are hiking taxes and refusing to do anything to help working families when they are feeling the pinch of the cost of living crisis.
“Tories waste disgusting amounts of public money on their own vanity and comfort, Labour wants to see families see a cut to energy bills, that is the difference.”
Meanwhile, people took to Twitter to fume:
How very unfortunate this display of wanton extravagance from one of top two threats to the prime minister has leakedhttps://twitter.com/PickardJE/status/1486678343911194630\u00a0\u2026— Janine Gibson (@Janine Gibson) 1643286896
Poor woman got ambushed by a jet.https://twitter.com/PickardJE/status/1486678343911194630\u00a0\u2026— Shoaib M Khan (@Shoaib M Khan) 1643288832
Greenest government ever.https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/liz-truss-australia-private-jet-flight-b2001692.html\u00a0\u2026— fleetstreetfox (@fleetstreetfox) 1643285544
From the people who've taken \u00a320 a week off the poorest and preached about saving the planet: a chartered jet to Australia costing taxpayers \u00a3500K.https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/liz-truss-australia-private-jet-flight-b2001692.html\u00a0\u2026— David Schneider (@David Schneider) 1643290999
Well, I for one am looking forward to @EmilyThornberry getting to the bottom of how @trussliz managed to spend \u00a3500,000 of taxpayer\u2019s money flying to Australia.— Emma Kennedy\ud83d\udc99 (@Emma Kennedy\ud83d\udc99) 1643298844
No one should be flying on a private jet. It\u2019s ludicrous.— Dr Julia Grace Patterson\ud83d\udc99 (@Dr Julia Grace Patterson\ud83d\udc99) 1643305217
As a taxpayer, I don\u2019t mind paying \u00a3500,000 towards Liz Truss flying to Australia, it\u2019s paying for the return ticket that I object to.— paul bassett davies (@paul bassett davies) 1643287116
The Foreign Secretary of a country with over 2000 food banks has spent \u00a3500,000 of taxpayers money on a private jet.— Otto Von Jizzmark (@Otto Von Jizzmark) 1643290427
Most of us will struggle to know our taxes fund Liz Truss' salary\n\nSo now get your head around this...\n\n\u00a3500k of taxpayers' money \n\nBecause she:\n\n "insisted on flying the 22k miles to, from and within Australia on the private government Airbus A321"https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/liz-truss-australia-private-jet-flight-b2001692.html\u00a0\u2026— Marina Purkiss (@Marina Purkiss) 1643288397
After that backlash against an eyewateringly expensive taxpayer funded lunch at 5 Hertford street, Liz Truss is surely now wary of splashing out.. \n\nLiz Truss: Hold my pint (of gin).https://twitter.com/SimonCalder/status/1486663145137614856\u00a0\u2026— Rt Hon Peter Mannion MP (@Rt Hon Peter Mannion MP) 1643296766
https://twitter.com/benphillips76/status/1486682976201097219\u00a0\u2026— Ben Phillips (@Ben Phillips) 1643288152
Spending big bucks to whizz around the world when you could do so for less. You might say that is a disgrace...
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