Top Tory James Cleverly spends £1million travelling globe on private jet

23 October 2023 , 16:10

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James Cleverly toured the Caribbean and Latin America on a private jet

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly spent almost a million pounds of taxpayers' money on private jets for two overseas trips, figures show.

The senior Tory ran up a bill of £561,531 in April as he attended G7 meetings in Tokyo before touring Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, New Zealand and Indonesia. Mr Cleverly was joined on the week-long trip on the Government’s own Airbus A321 by an entourage of 13 officials. With 53 hours of flying time, the government jet cost £10,595 per hour to use.

A month later he hired a VIP jet usually used by Korean pop stars at a cost of £422,747.50 to take him and eighteen officials on a week-long tour of the Caribbean and Latin America.

The Embraer Lineage 1000E made stops in Jamaica, Colombia, Chile and Brazil. With 37 hours of flying time, the costs for the luxury jet worked out at more than £11,400 per hour. The plane has been described as “one of the best luxury private jets money can buy” with separate zones for relaxation and dining.

Kendall Roy used the same type of private plane in TV series Succession (HBO)

As well as a lounge area with big-screen TV, it contains a master suite for the main VIP, with queen size bed and private bathroom, including a large shower cubicle. The model featured in the fleet of corporate jets used by the billionaire Roy family in Succession.

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The specific aircraft hired by Mr Cleverly had previously been used this year during the concert tours of rival Korean girl bands Blackpink and Dreamcatcher.

At Labour Party conference earlier this month, Rachel Reeves pledged to crack down on the use of private flights by ministers if she gets into power. In an interview with the Mirror, the Shadow Chancellor said: “I will give the commitment that with Labour I will treat taxpayers' money with the same respect that people treat their own money. You haven't had that from this government whether it was the Covid contracts signed off by Rishi Sunak when billions went in fraud or ministers going around on private jets rather than on normal flights.”

The ministerial code states that non-scheduled flights should only be used "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."

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “The Foreign Secretary’s job requires him to travel abroad to pursue UK interests. Value for money is taken into account in all travel decisions and costs are regularly published for transparency.”

John Stevens