Rishi Sunak flew to the south coast and back by helicopter on Tuesday morning in the latest example of the UK prime minister’s fondness for short-distance air travel.
As he tried to get on the front foot after disastrous local election results, Sunak visited a pharmacy in Southampton to announce government plans for chemists to provide prescriptions for millions of patients in England.
However, instead of getting the train from Waterloo station for the 160-mile round trip, which would have taken one hour 15 minutes each way, and cost about £30 for a return fare, he opted to travel by air. An equivalent private flight would cost in the region of £6,000 return.
The cost of the helicopter flight to the port city, where Sunak was raised, was believed to have been picked up by the taxpayer. The prime minister’s spokesperson has previously said his travel arrangements made the “most effective use of his time”.
But the helicopter trip is likely to add to the public perception that Sunak, who has a net worth of £730m, is out of touch with everyday concerns.
The prime minister told reporters in Southampton that last week’s local elections – during which the Conservative party lost more than 1,000 council seats, worse than their lowest expectations – were “obviously disappointing” but insisted his priorities were right for the country.
In recent months, Sunak has made several helicopter trips to his constituency in North Yorkshire, although these were privately funded. In February, he returned to London from Dorset by helicopter and then flew back to Cornwall the next morning for a joint press conference with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The latest helicopter trip left RAF Northolt at 8.53am on Tuesday before landing at Wellington Barracks in Westminster, where it picked up Sunak after he finished a cabinet meeting at 9.15am.
He landed at Southampton airport at 9.47am, according to flight records, for his visit to a pharmacy in the city, which began about half an hour later. Alternatively, Sunak could have taken the 8.35am train, which arrived at 9.50am.
Sunak’s official spokesperson confirmed that the prime minister had travelled by helicopter to and from Southampton at public expense, in part because he had “a series of meetings” in the afternoon he needed to attend.
Asked why Sunak did not use the train, the spokesperson said: “His transport will vary depending on his time and where he’s going, and to make the best use of both his time and in the interests of the taxpayer.”
Downing Street said it would have to check with the prime minister when he last took a train.
The prime minister also regularly uses taxpayer-funded private jets for government business. In January, he flew to Scotland to launch a green tax breaks plan, while he took the same luxury flight to visit a healthcare centre only 200 miles away in Leeds.
The Southampton trip also angered the local newspaper, which was not invited to the pharmacy event. When a reporter turned up anyway, they were refused access.
The editor of the Southern Daily Echo, Ben Fishwick, has written to Downing Street to protest.
“We are now picking up what Mr Sunak said secondhand, without having had the opportunity to put our readers’ questions and concerns to the prime minister,” Fishwick said.
