Embattled Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab has left taxpayers with a £23,000 bill for a flight that lasted only an hour.
The Justice Secretary is said to have chartered a jet to take him and nine officials from the Hague, in the Netherlands, back to Britain earlier this year.
That’s despite ministers being instructed to use commercial flights where possible.
A round trip from Gatwick to nearby Amsterdam - flying business class with nine people on British Airways - costs just a tenth of the price at about £2,400. This could have saved the taxpayer around £20,000.
Mr Raab took the flight to convene allies to investigate Russian war crimes, according to The Sun.
A source close to Mr Raab told the paper: “This flight was taken in order that the Deputy Prime Minister, on behalf of the UK, could convene a large group of international allies to provide the International Criminal Court with the support, funding, and technical assistance to begin evidence gathering for the alleged war crimes committed by Russia.”
But Labour ’s Shadow Justice Secretary Steve Reed said Mr Raab was “ferrying himself around the world in first class at the taxpayers’ expense”.
He added: “He is out of touch and has no respect for taxpayers’ cash.”
The Mirror has previously reported that Mr Raab took a million pounds worth of private charter flights during just nine months while he was Foreign Secretary.
Official records show the Deputy Prime Minister chartered private planes to fly him and aides to Singapore, Riyadh, Tel Aviv, Jakarta, Gibraltar, Cuprus and Seoul between October 2020 and June 2021.
It’s just the latest in a string of scandals engulfing the Tory frontbencher.
Labour is demanding a full-scale investigation into ministers use of private emails after it emerged that Dominic Raab had used a private inbox for government business.
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said: “Not only does Dominic Raab face serious bullying allegations, but now we hear he was warned by officials about his use of private emails but ignored the warnings."
The same issue brought down Home Secretary Suella Braverman for six days, before she was re-employed by new PM Rishi Sunak.
A Government-appointed lawyer is investigating three formal bullying complaints lodged against Mr Raab after the remit was expanded to include a claim from 2018 when he was Brexit Secretary.
Mr Raab said he had "behaved professionally at all times" and said he would cooperate fully with the probe.
A Ministry of Justice Spokesperson said: “Chartered flights are only used in very rare circumstances where commercial flights are not suitable or unavailable.
“In this case a charted flight was used at short notice to enable the DPM to lead a delegation of international allies in supporting the International Criminal Court to investigate war crimes in Ukraine. Due to other diary commitments commercial options were not suitable.”
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