Blair criticised for lavish overseas travel bill

LONDON - Tony Blair faced criticism after admitting he spent £2 million ($5,943,000) on diplomatic travel across the globe last year.

His prime ministerial travel bill more than doubled to £2,023,909 last year, despite pledging at the start of the year to concentrate on domestic politics.

Mr Blair's trips included spending nearly £500,000 on taking 23 officials to Singapore to lobby for London's successful 2012 Olympic bid.

He also paid nearly £430,000 for his six-day tour of Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia in March.

The Prime Minister's 22 international visits came despite his acknowledgement during last year's Labour spring conference that he had spent too much time on the international stage because of the war in Iraq.

He declared at the time, "I'm back and it feels good."

Figures for the amount of taxpayers' money spent on ministerial travel between March 2005 and April this year showed Mr Blair spent £118,000 on a trip to Washington for talks with President George Bush in June last year, and nearly £140,000 on travelling to attend the UN Millennium Summit.

He also paid more than £100,000 on travelling to South Africa for the Progressive Governance Summit in February, the figures showed.

Mr Blair's travel made up a third of the overall ministerial travel and accommodation bill of £6.1 million.

The Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker said: "It is clear that the Prime Minister is spending more and more time abroad in direct proportion to his popularity dipping at home.

"The massive increase in money he has spent this year on flights suggests that there is no cheque he will not sign providing it's a blank one on the taxpayers' bank account."

John Prescott made 15 visits, ten of them by scheduled airline or mainly or solely by Eurostar costing £81,860.

The most expensive was a tour of Eastern European countries preparing for Britain's EU presidency where a charter plane cost £18,120.

His controversial trip to Washington, Austin, in Texas, Denver and Los Angeles last July, when he met the casino developer Philip Anschutz, cost £12,600.

Mr Blair and Mr Prescott made little use of the Royal Flight jets of 32 Squadron.

But the exclusive service was heavily used by other ministers.

Margaret Beckett, the then Environment Secretary, used the Squadron 19 times, mainly for short hops to Brussels and Luxembourg to attend European meetings.

Jack Straw, the then Foreign Secretary, used the squadron 20 times, against mainly for trips to Brussels, despite the regular Eurostar train services.

Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat environment spokesman, said: "The Prime Minister and other ministers would get to and from Brussels more quickly ands more environmentally soundly if they took the Eurostar rather than the Queen's flight."

Flights made by Downing Street and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs were "offset" by investing in carbon reducing projects around the world.

Flights during Britain's presidency of the EU were offset.

Offsetting flights became standard across the Government in April.

A Defra spokesman said: "A full RAF flight costs the department less per person than if the ministerial team flew by commercial airline.

"Furthermore there are occasions when meetings end at unpredictable hours, sometimes in the middle of the night, when there is no alternative transport available.

"Returning to the UK immediately allows attendance at high-level meetings early next morning and represents savings on hotel accommodation and subsistence for the ministerial party."

- INDEPENDENT