Rishi Sunak accused of behaving like 'A-list celeb' over RAF jet use

Rishi Sunak accused of behaving like an ‘A-list celebrity’ as he uses posh RAF jet for the third time in 10 days: PM flies 250 miles from London to Blackpool to promote ‘levelling-up’ of deprived areas

• RAF VIP jet flew from RAF Northolt in London to Blackpool this morning
• It is the closest airport to Morecambe, where the PM is expected to speak later
• Third use of an RAF aircraft in the past 10 day, after Leeds, Scotland trips

Rishi Sunak was accused of behaving like an ‘A-List celebrity’ today as he apparently  used the RAF to fly 250 miles to northern England to promote Government help for deprived areas. 

A posh air force jet reserved for VIPs flew this morning from RAF Northolt in north west London to Blackpool, the closest airport to Morecambe, where the PM is expected to speak later.

No10 declined to discuss his travel plans for security reasons but if confirmed it would be his third use of an RAF aircraft in the past 10 days to parts of Britain with mainline train links to London.

He flew to Edinburgh to see Nicola Sturgeon and Leeds to visit an NHS unit for a photo op last week. 

The 41-minute journey today would allow him to avoid using the Avanti West Coast Mainline train service, which has been much criticised in recent months for horrific performance and punctuality. An 8.30am train from Euston could get him to Morecambe at 1025 if running on time. 

Tory MP Mark Jenkinson, whose seat is in Cumbria, defended the flight, saying it would be ‘madness’ for the PM to take an ‘unreliable’ train.

But Labour attacked the flight cost at a time when ordinary families are under financial pressure from soaring bills.

Rishi Sunak buying sweets with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt (left) during a community project visit to Accrington Market Hall in Lancashire today

Number 10 posted pictures online last week showing the PM boarding the French-made executive jet, which can carry 14 people, to visit Leeds

A posh air force jet reserved for VIPs flew this morning from RAF Northolt in north west London to Blackpool, the closest airport to Morecambe, where the PM is expected to speak later.

A Labour spokeswoman said: ‘Rishi Sunak isn’t even trying to hide these recklessly expensive habits anymore. 

‘Jetting around the country on taxpayers money like an A-list celeb rather than catching a train like the rest of us is simply absurd.’

The ministerial code says ministers should ‘ensure that they always make efficient and cost-effective travel arrangements’.

It adds: ‘Only members of the Cabinet and ministers in charge of departments have discretion to authorise special flights either for themselves or other ministers within their departments. 

‘Non-scheduled flights may be authorised when a scheduled service is not available, or when it is essential to travel by air, but the requirements of official or Parliamentary business or security considerations preclude the journey being made by a scheduled service.’

Mr Sunak’s Government was forced onto the defensive today as it came under fire from Tory MPs in Red Wall seats who claimed the £2.1billion Levelling-Up fund was biased towards affluent areas in the south east.

Michael Gove insisted that the pot of regeneration cash was ‘heavily tilted’ towards the North amid claims that areas which voted Tory for the first time in 2019 were missing out.

But just half of the successful bids are in the top 100 most deprived areas of Britain. The Prime Minister’s own affluent Richmond constituency in Yorkshire is receiving £19million in funding, with money going to the Catterick Garrison, home to many British Army units, to regenerate the town centre. 

One Tory MP told the Times: ‘People are apoplectic. There are some really wealthy areas on the list. It looks awful. It’s gone down terribly among red wall MPs.’ 

But Mr Gove, the Levelling-Up Secretary, denied that the relatively affluent South East is receiving more levelling up money than communities in the North.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘Well, that’s not quite true. If you look at it in terms of the amount of money allocated per person, then it is the case that it’s the North West, the North East, Wales, which do best of all.

No10 has previously defended the PM’s use of RAF aircraft instead of scheduled train services or his ministerial car, saying there was ‘a great deal of pressure on his time’. 

Mr Sunak’s Government was forced onto the defensive today as it came under fire from Tory MPs in Red Wall seats who claimed the £2.1billion Levelling-Up fund was biased towards affluent areas in the south east.

Last week it posted pictures online showing him boarding the French-made Envoy executive jet, which can carry 14 people in front of a saluting serviceman before flying to Leeds.

He is the latest minister to face questions over their use of official government aircraft for journeys that could be done by cheaper – albeit slower – forms of transport. 

Last November Home Secretary Suella Braverman used an RAF chinook helicopter to travel 30 miles from Dover to the Manston migrant camp at the height of the Channel boat crisis.

She was spotted disembarking from the aircraft wearing a Top Gun-style pilots’ helmet. Sources close to the Home Secretary said it was so she could ‘see the breadth of the coastline’ that Border Force officials are having to monitor as thousands continue to arrive in Britain from across the Channel.

During the helicopter journey, Dan O’Mahoney, Border Force’s clandestine threat commander, was said to have pointed out locations to Mrs Braverman where migrants’ small boats are brought to shore.

Source: Read Full Article