Liz Truss has been accused of a “brazen” waste of public money after spending £500,000 of public funds taking a private jet to Australia.
The Foreign Secretary, seen as a contender for the leadership of the Tory party, chose to take a private government jet half way round the world earlier this month rather than a regular scheduled passenger flight from London.
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, slammed Truss for the “ridiculous" waste of money on a defence and trade mission to Australia
She said: “Liz Truss shows the public exactly quite how little respect this Conservative government has for taxpayers."
Rayner added: “This government is brazen in its disregard for upholding decency.
“It is obscene that government ministers are jet setting yet are hiking taxes and refusing to do anything to help working families when they are feeling the pinch of the cost of living crisis.”
SNP Environment spokeswoman Deidre Brock MP said: “Yet again, Liz Truss has serious questions to answer over her grotesque misuse of taxpayers’ money to fund her jet set lifestyle.
“Ms Truss has a history of frittering away public funds. Only recently, she was criticised for splashing out over a thousand pounds on a single lunch, which saw her quaffing high-end wines in a Mayfair private members club owned by a Tory donor.
“With a record like this, Lavish Liz will make a fitting successor to Boris Johnson.”
A Foreign Office official said: “It’s necessary for the foreign secretary to travel abroad to pursue UK interests around security, trade and technology, as she did during this visit to Australia.
“This trip used government transport and was fully within rules set out in the Ministerial Code.”
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