Top Tories took £13k in ski trip freebies while NHS docs struggled during strike
Piste-taking Tories smile for a snap during a skiing trip where the party’s MPs enjoyed almost £13,000 of freebies.
The eight who joined the Davos jaunt, including camera-shy former PM Liz Truss, lapped up benefits including ski passes, hospitality and guides. They included minister Andrew Griffith – who is seen giving a thumbs up in the snap – and senior Tory Tim Loughton, who took along his wife.
Other Tory MPs at the annual British-Swiss Parliamentary Ski Week were Damian Collins, Karl McCartney, Ben Everitt, Sally-Ann Hart and Sara Britcliffe. Also pictured is Tory peer Lord Wrottesley, who won the giant slalom event.
The online schedule for the week included a “ski party and sing-song”, plus a day two “get-together party” at Davos’s Hotel Seehof. It also listed a “roundtable discussion” on issues including “winning elections”.
The trip came as junior doctors began a 144-hour strike over pay on January 3. Keep Our NHS Public’s Dr John Puntis said: “The contrast presented by some of our lawmakers gallivanting in the snow and junior doctors battered by the cost-of-living crisis and forced to take industrial action is striking.”
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The eight MPs registered £12,834.29 of freebies. Donors included Davos Klosters Bergbahnen AG, Skigruppe der Bundesversammlung and Davos Ski School. Dates for their trips varied from December 31 to January 6.
Ms Truss, MP for South West Norfolk, got one ski pass as well as “50% of one discounted ski pass” worth £310. She also listed a reception for four at £91 and “Ski guides, plus one ski pass and 50% of one discounted ski pass, and hospitality for four people, value £1,719”.
Lincoln MP Mr McCartney registered “part payment (50%) of two adult ski passes, plus group guides and lessons” worth about £2,102.78 – as well as a “formal dinner and receptions plus part payment (50%) of two adult ski passes and two young adults and two youth passes, approx value £1,464.81”. The lowest amount registered was by Hastings and Rye MP Ms Hart, who noted hospitality for five at £561.70.
Lord Wrottesley registered being part of “UK Parliamentary ski team” and his entry said he “paid his own travel and accommodation costs; ski pass for 2 days of competition was supplied by Skigruppe der Bundesversammlung”.
In a statement he said was on behalf of Tory MPs who attended, Mr Loughton said: “It is a great opportunity to meet and engage with Swiss counterparts.
“Although travel and accommodation costs are down to Parliamentarians, at no cost to taxpayers, and the trip is held during recess, there is some opportunity for bilateral politics. The authorities in Davos provide a limited number of ski passes and a fondue ‘knees-up’ evening to help offset a fraction of the cost.”
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