Rishi Sunak spent more than £500,000 of taxpayers' money on private jet trips in less than two weeks, again sparking accusations that the UK prime minister is ‘out of touch.’
According to The Guardian, newly-released government data shows Rishi Sunak took private jet trips costing more than Rs 5 crore in less than a fortnight last year. He spent a total of £512,321 on trips to Egypt, Bali, Latvia and Estonia in the last quarter of 2022 alone.
Sunak hired a private jet to fly to the Cop27 summit in Egypt last November – a one-day trip that cost £108,000 (Rs 1 crore approx.) He then jetted off to the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia – a five-day visit that came up to more than £340,000. He returned from Bali on November 17.
The following month, the British prime minister made trips to Latvia and Estonia to visit troops. The cost of the trip came to £62,500, not including Sunak’s personal costs, according to The Mirror.
Wera Hobhouse, the Liberal Democrats’ energy and climate spokesperson, called it a shocking waste of taxpayers’ money and slammed the environmental cost of flying private. “This is a shocking waste of taxpayers’ money at a time when people are struggling to pay their bills. Yet again this Conservative government is completely out of touch.
"The government can pretend to care about a greener future with their so-called ‘green day’ but the reality is they are trashing their own promises,” Hobhouse said.
As one of the wealthiest leaders that the UK has ever seen – with a net worth rivalling the royals – Sunak has regularly faced criticism for his spending. Here are five other instances when the UK PM faced backlash.
