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Daily Mail
01-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Revealed: Sir Lindsay Hoyle splurged nearly £5,500 of taxpayers' cash on private planes during a Caribbean tour to paradise islands
Sir Lindsay Hoyle splurged nearly £5,500 on private planes during a Caribbean tour, it can be revealed. The Commons Speaker used more taxpayers' money to charter three planes to hop between the paradise islands of St Maarten, Montserrat, Anguilla and Antigua. It was part of a week-long jaunt which included a two-night 'official visit' to Montserrat to meet his counterpart on the island. It also included a four-night stay in Anguilla to attend the Conference of Speakers of the UK House of Commons and Overseas Territories. In total, Sir Lindsay spent more than £100,000 of taxpayers' cash 'sponsoring' the conference. While it was reported during the 2023 trip Sir Lindsay travelled there by private plane and stayed in hotels costing up to £900 a night, it was not known that he had chartered three private planes while in the Caribbean or that he went to St Maarten and Antigua – neither being on the trip docket. The Daily Mail had fought for further details of the trip that previously were not spelled out in Sir Lindsay's official log, via Freedom of Information requests. The private plane from St Maarten to Montserrat cost £2,350. From Montserrat to Anguilla and then from there to Antigua cost £1,500 each for Sir Lindsay and three officials. The newly discovered flights come to a total of £5,350 of taxpayers' cash. A complete bill of £101,552.60 was splurged on throwing the speakers' conference so eight of Sir Lindsay's counterparts and 30 delegates could attend – with £47,962.43 spent on flights. He also handed the National Assembly of Anguilla a £50,000 'organising grant' to prepare for the conference. It comes amid growing questions about the scale of Sir Lindsay's travel expenses, which have surged past £300,000 since he became Speaker in 2019. He has taken his wife on several trips along with up to four staff. On his latest jaunt to Malaysia in the middle of February, he spent more than £25,000 on business-class flights, hotels and restaurants for him and staff. John O'Connell, of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'Taxpayers will be livid that they have to pick up these sky-high bills for private planes. Getting government business overseas done quickly is one thing, but continuing to stump up for politicians with a taste for the good life is quite another. 'Politicians have to cut out unnecessary spending and treat taxpayers with the respect they deserve.' Former Tory cabinet minister David Jones said: 'To spend money on three chartered aircraft flights in the Caribbean, at a time when the people of this country were suffering greatly as a consequence of the massive increase in the cost of living, is turning a tin ear to public sentiment. It shouldn't be happening. 'It's a very nice jolly in the Caribbean, but to hire private planes to cruise around is not a good look. It's just not acceptable.' Referring to the fact that Sir Lindsay was a Labour MP before becoming the Commons Speaker, he added: 'Given how Labour are whacking up taxes at the moment, the old 'champagne socialist' jibe has come true. 'I voted for Sir Lindsay Hoyle for a change from [former Commons Speaker] John Bercow, because I thought he'd be a refreshing change. But I don't see much difference.' The Speaker's Office said one reason details of the private planes were not listed in his official travel expenses log was because some of the costs were allocated to the Clerk of the House, while some were included in the overall budget for sponsoring the conference. They said he flew via St Maarten and then chartered a private plane for the Montserrat 'official visit' because there were no direct flights.
Jordan Times
25-02-2025
- Politics
- Jordan Times
UK PM heads to US hoping to 'bridge' Trump-Europe divide over Ukraine
A handout photograph released by the UK House of Commons shows Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivering a speech on defence and security at the House of Commons, in London, on February 25, 2025 (AFP photo) LONDON — UK leader Keir Starmer makes a high-stakes visit to the White House on Thursday to try to convince US President Donald Trump to provide security guarantees for Ukraine as part of any ceasefire agreement with Russia. The British prime minister will seek to build on French President Emmanuel Macron's visit to Washington on Monday, when he warned that peace cannot mean the "surrender" of the French leader said his talks with Trump on the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine had shown a path forward despite fears of a transatlantic in turn will try to perform a diplomatic high-wire act by sticking up for Kyiv without annoying Trump, who has stunned Europe by pursuing talks with President Vladimir Putin's Russian administration."Starmer will be very reluctant to publicly critique Trump's stance but he will have to find ways to diplomatically do so, for the sake of Ukraine," said Evie Aspinall, director of the British Foreign Policy Group of Starmer's wish list is securing assurances from Trump that the US will provide a so-called backstop, possibly in the form of air cover, intelligence and logistics, to support any European troops sent to Ukraine to monitor a and Paris are spearheading proposals to send a European "reassurance force" of fewer than 30,000 soldiers to protect Ukraine in the event the war 'backup'Macron said Trump had "good reason" to re-engage with Putin, but said it was critical for Washington to offer "backup" for any European peacekeeping the Trump administration has ruled out committing US soldiers, Starmer has insisted a US "backstop" is vital to deter Russia from "launching another invasion in just a few years' time".Starmer will tell his counterpart that Ukraine must be involved in negotiations to end the conflict, after Washington shocked Europe this month by holding discussions with Moscow UK premier has already sought to appease Trump by publicly stating his willingness to send British peacekeepers to Ukraine to monitor any truce, while France has pledged the will also be hoping that his announcement Tuesday that UK defence spending will rise from 2.3 percent to 2.5 percent by 2027 will please Trump, with the US president regularly saying European countries should be paying more towards other European leaders, Starmer has been at pains to avoid publicly disagreeing with stance has been tested though, notably last week when he rejected Trump's claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was a "dictator". 'Bridge'Trump insists he wants peace and has accused both Macron and Starmer of doing "nothing" to end the Ukraine war over the past three prime minister hopes to act as a "bridge" between America and Europe, but Trump's unpredictability will make for a nervy meeting in the Oval polar opposite personalities may also complicate matters. While Trump is a brash, convention-breaking unilateralist, Starmer is a cautious former human rights lawyer who reveres multilateral meeting also comes with tensions over US steel tariffs and Starmer's controversial decision to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and pay to lease a strategic UK-US military base there."The biggest risk is that Trump continues to berate Ukraine and Europe and maybe even the UK, embarrassing Starmer and damaging the UK's credibility," Aspinall Darroch, a former UK ambassador to Washington, said Starmer should play to Trump's ego and insist on the legacy he could have."If I were Starmer, I would say to Trump that this is your chance for your place in history," Darroch told BBC radio last week."But it has to be a fair deal. If it's a bad deal, you are not going to get that praise, you are going to get a load of criticism and that will be your record in the history books," he Whitman, a UK foreign policy expert, said he thought the best Starmer could do was "play for time". "We know that Trump is inconsistent and we know that it's perfectly possible his position on Ukraine might change when he finds it really difficult to get a peace deal out of Putin," he told AFP.
