Angela Rayner's department racks up enough air miles to fly round the world 13 TIMES as Deputy PM enjoys foreign jaunts to Africa and Europe
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government's (MHCLG) annual report, published this week, revealed a huge rise in international air travel in 2024/25.
Staff travelled 514,785km on foreign trips over 12-month period - almost five times the 108,060km in international air travel in 2023/24, when the Tories were in power.
Since taking charge of MHCLG, Ms Rayner - who is also the Deputy Prime Minister - has enjoyed foreign jaunts to Europe and Africa.
In November, Ms Rayner travelled to The Vatican to meet Pope Francis, before she headed on to Seville to meet the Spanish PM.
She followed this up with a trip to Ethiopia and Ghana in February, during which she reportedly asked if she could use the opportunity to go on a personal safari.
The Deputy PM's trip to Africa to meet national leaders saw her accused of snubbing her bulging in-tray of domestic duties in favour of 'swanning around the world'.
MHCLG's foreign travel in 2024/25 was estimated to have emitted 77.4 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Some 92 tonnes of carbon dioxide was also emitted from the department's domestic flying over the same period - up from 59 tonnes in 2023/24.
Meanwhile, MHCLG staff travelled 13,774km on the Eurostar in 2024/25 - up from 10,240km in the previous year.
MHCLG said the year-on-year increase in international air travel can be 'partly attributed to the increase in significant international conferences that were attended by Homes England staff during the latter part of the financial year'.
It also admitted it had not met a target for reducing carbon emissions from domestic flights, but pointed to the recent opening of an office in Belfast.
David Simmonds, the Tory shadow housing minister, said: 'This is a totally unserious use of taxpayer money or officials' time.
'Angela Rayner should be focusing on delivering the homes this country needs, but Labour have no plans to deliver, not gallivanting around the world playing at Deputy PM.'
An MHCLG spokesman said: 'Overall departmental emissions from business travel have decreased by 33 per cent compared to the 2017-18 baseline.
'And international travel emissions remain lower than the 2017-18 baseline.'
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