David Lammy should keep on taking PJs

Telegraph

06-04-2025

Amid the gloom of Trumpian tariffs, Birmingham rats and the ghastly news that a new Boujis nightclub is opening in Kensington, comes some proper cheer. David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, racked up a bill of £1.2 million for his private jet use (or PJs as regulars call them) between October and December last year.
When you're as important as Mr Lammy has become, Zoom calls won't do and you must press the flesh – look your fellow foreign secretaries in the eye and bring with you the fulsome weight of an official entourage; attend a summit and get back to Blighty in time for tea with the King – then £14,000 a day is diplomatic peanuts.
Indeed, Lammy's use of the PJ is exactly like that of his predecessors. Except that he and his Labour Cabinet colleagues spent their years in opposition sneering at the Conservatives' use of such means of travel.
I have spent hours listening to, and indeed enjoying, Lammy spreading himself across the airwaves, especially on LBC, and, historically, the man could barely open his mouth without pontificating at the appalling waste, sleaze and largesse of Conservatives.
But now, safely in power, in the globe-trotting role of his dreams, if he can pop to Kosovo to check out some small firearms, or nip to Delhi for a chinwag about UK visas for nurses, out will go the call: 'Is the PJ ready?'
Angela Rayner snarled at Liz Truss's use of such means of flying, saying it showed 'exactly quite how little respect this Conservative government has for taxpayers' money'. A Labour spokesman said Rishi Sunak was 'out of touch' when he used private planes and helicopters to whizz around the UK during the 2024 general election. In October 2023, Rachel Reeves even promised a 'crackdown on Tory ministers' private jet habit', if and when they came to power.
At a speech to Chatham House in January 2023, Lammy said his Labour government would be 'at the vanguard of climate action'.
'We will argue for the creation of a new law of ecocide to prosecute the widespread and intentional destruction of the planet,' he said. A year later, at the Fabian Society, he said, 'If I become foreign secretary, UK diplomats will work to build a Clean Power Alliance of developed and developing countries.'
What he didn't say was that to drive forward these initiatives, he would need the use of a private jet; that mode of air transport which is significantly more environmentally damaging than a commercial flight, with far greater levels of carbon dioxide emissions per passenger.
But then no one relishes the PJ life, the chauffeur-driven limo, the grand hotel suite, and the entourage of bag-carrying lackies more than a socialist. 'Don't mind if I do,' they sneer, grabbing the flute of champagne while, devoid of hubris or humour, directing their officials to put out a firm message to the horrid folk of the media.
'At a time of significant global upheaval, it is vital that the Foreign Secretary can travel abroad – often at very short notice – to defend and champion the UK's interests,' said a spokesman for the Foreign Office this week.
Now, I am a passionate believer that our MPs, our nation's leaders, should be ferried in as comfortable and speedy a way as possible across the globe. A prime minister should be afforded nannies, cooks, nutritionists, personal trainers and whatever they need to help them focus on the job in hand, and we should pay our MPs vastly greater salaries and afford them generous expenses.
But when the hypocrite comes home to roost, they deserve a roasting. So nothing cheers me more than to see Labour folk doing what they always do: swelling the public sector, raising taxes, busting the economy and, on that pathway to catastrophe, absolutely loving every comfort offered that they always swore they despised. It's the classic double-standard that lies, rotting, at the heart of their socialist ideology, reminding us to turf them out of office at the next available opportunity.