11 February 2023 , 22:30
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Rishi Sunak and fellow Tory bigwigs have spent millions treating themselves to five-star luxury on the taxpayer’s tab.
Ministers are supposed to stay in the most cost-effective hotels, under official guidelines.
And 10 years ago the Commons Public Accounts Committee called for less five-star digs and more second-class travel.
But that fell on deaf ears, according to a Labour study of spending on Whitehall’s credit card, known as the Government Procurement Card.
On a trip to Venice in July 2021, the Treasury spent £3,217 at the five-star Hotel Danieli and £1,361 at four-star Hotel Bonvecchiati.
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That was for then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak and 11 others at the G20 summit. Mr Sunak was only there for one night.
Alok Sharma ran up the most bills – £220,817 for 66 overseas trips over two years to September 2022 – going to talks about climate change as president of COP26.
The Ritz Carlton, Riyadh, where Lord Grimstone stayed (Collect)Two nights at the five-star Tianjin Binhai One Hotel cost £9,238 for him and 10 aides, £420 per person per night, in September 2021. His jaunts also included a £4,233 stay at the five-star Four Seasons in Seoul, South Korea, from November 4-8, 2021.
Other Tories living it up included then-investment minister Lord Grimstone.
He and a secretary stayed at Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Ritz Carlton, one of the world’s poshest hotels, in 2021. Two nights were complimentary but Whitehall paid for a third, plus all three nights for his aide, costing £3,041 – or £760 a night.
Hotel Danieli, Venice, where Rishi Sunak stayed (Internet Unknown)Cardholders spent £120,000 on Airbnbs in six months to October, an average of £2,342 per transaction. A trip to the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021 for Therese Coffey cost the Department for Work and Pensions £6,177 and £5,810 for flights to Tokyo for the then-Secretary of State and another.
There is no claim of illegality but Labour’s Angela Rayner said: “Ministers are living the high life and treating taxpayers like a cash machine.”
A Conservative source said: “By 2010 Labour was spending almost £1 billion of taxpayers’ money on everything from dinners at Mr Chu’s Chinese restaurant to luxury five-star hotels.
“The Conservatives swiftly stopped their absurd profligacy, cutting the number of cards, introducing a requirement for spending to be publicly declared and putting in place controls.”