Environmental groups have slammed Boris Johnson for flying on a government charter flight north today, when he could have caught a train instead.
The Prime Minister’s 40-minute flight took off from London Stansted at around 10.46am, meaning he would have left Downing Street around 9am to make it in time.
But the total two and a half hour round trip to the airport and back again means he only got to his destination, Blackpool, around 50 minutes earlier than if he’d been driven to London Euston - a 17 minute drive.
If he had caught the 9.10am train north he would have arrived in Blackpool at 12.16pm, reported LBC.
As well as potentially costing more, the plane journey would have created several tons of greenhouse gases which could have been avoided.
Paul Tuohy, Chief Executive of Campaign for Better Transport, said: "Flying to Blackpool sends entirely the wrong message about what sort of transport future we want. This is shocking from a Prime Minister who talks the talk on tackling climate change.
" Boris Johnson should have caught the train instead and emitted a tiny fraction of the carbon emissions.
"We will be happy to post a train timetable to 10 Downing Street if he needs a little help to travel the clean, green, responsible way."
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner accused the PM of wasting taxpayers’ money, saying he showed how “little respect” the Tories have for public money.
A spokesman for the PM said: "The Prime Minister uses a variety of transport in order to conduct business safely and efficiently, including trains.
“All travel decisions are made with consideration for security and time restraints."
It comes a week after Foreign Secretary Liz Truss was accused of splashing out “at least £500,000” of taxpayers’ money on a private plane to Australia
Ms Truss set off for Australia on January 18 at noon from London’s Stansted Airport and made two pit stops on the way Down Under, in Dubai and Kuala Lumpur.
She touched down in Sydney shortly after midnight on Thursday January 20, but If she had travelled via business class on a Qantas Airways flight, the Foreign Secretary could have arrived in Australia five hours earlier.
She said: "I used the Government plane - that is why we have a Government plane: to enable Government ministers to conduct Government business, and that's what I flew to Australia in."
Pressed on whether it would have been better to have used commercial flights instead, the Cabinet minister said: "Every Government decision is based on value for money.”
