Rishi Sunak does one controversial thing more than any other recent PM

Rishi Sunak has done something that recent PMs before him have not done to such a large degree.

The 'something' he has done is take domestic flights despite the availability of other methods of transport like trains.

Indeed, the prime minister, has used RAF jets and helicopters for domestic flights more frequently than the UK's previous three prime ministers, the BBC revealed.

The broadcaster looked at Ministry of Defence data and found he took almost one such flight a week during his first seven months in office.

Specifically, he boarded 23 domestic flights on these aircraft in 187 days, which is one every eight days on average.

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Last month, Sunak defended flying to Scotland to announce funding for a carbon capture and storage project and said it was “the most efficient use of my time”.

In May, he took a helicopter to Southampton, where he was promoting new government healthcare plans, despite it only being 1hr 15 mins away from London's Waterloo Station by train.

And in January, he faced sustained criticism after he took a 36 minute flight from London to Leeds on an RAF jet to visit a West Yorkshire healthcare centre.

Theresa May, on the other hand, took one flight every 13 days on average, while Boris Johnson flew once every 20 days and Liz Truss flew once every 12 days. However it is worth remembering that Truss wasn't in Downing Street for very long at all and Johnson faced travel restrictions during his time in office thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Anna Hughes, whose Flight Free UK campaign urges people to fly less for the sake of the climate, said Sunak's transport choices were "frustrating".

Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

She said if leaders demonstrated "the kind of behaviour that we all need to adopt to avert the climate crisis, it communicates that it's serious and real".

"You can't just say I'm the prime minister, I'm too busy and important," she added.

"In order to achieve a long visit, the only way was to use an aircraft," they said.

A Downing Street spokesperson told the BBC that ministers "sometimes require the use of non-commercial air travel".

"This is a standard practice for governments around the world and this has consistently been the case under successive UK administrations of all political colours," the spokesperson said.

"Value for money, security, and time efficiency is taken into account in all travel decisions and all flights are carbon offset."

Not the best environmentalist, then.

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