Taxpayers were charged nearly £9,000 for liberal peer Lord Paddick, to fly home from a holiday in the United States to make a Parliamentary speech that lasted for four minutes, in 2014. A former Metropolitan police chief, he made an intervention of just 446 words long in a debate on bombing Isis targets in Iraq.
Returning from New York, the 7,000-mile round trip saw him take a British Airways business class flight at an effective cost to the public purse of nearly £20 a word or £2,224 a minute. Documents under freedom of information laws revealed Lord Paddick flew home from New York's JFK airport in a flatbed seat the night before the debate. After making a brief appearance, he took a return flight from Heathrow, the same night, yet again, in a flatbed seat. The final bill amounted to £8,897.84- a cost to taxpayers of nearly £20 a word or £2,224 a minute.
The incident was described in the book 'Parliament Ltd' by journalist Martin Williams, published by Hodder & Stoughton last week. It also reveals how 43 peers claimed expenses during the 2014-15 parliamentary session worth a total of £621,600 — but never spoke in the chamber. A group of 34 peers claimed expenses worth £130,000 while never voting during the same period. Eight peers claimed a total of just under £29,000 while neither speaking nor voting.
In response to the claims, Lord Paddick said, "I sought the advice of the chief whip and the House of Lords authorities before travelling. I was advised what class of travel I was entitled to. I gave up two days of my holiday to speak in an important debate in parliament. The claim simply covered the cost of travel. I did not gain financially myself from the claim." If parliament is recalled during a recess, as it happened in 2014, MPs and peers who are away can recover the costs of getting home "including the cost of travel from overseas".
Peers receive no salary but can claim a £300 daily allowance for turning up. It costs the people about £18m a year.
Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said, "Given the brevity of Lord Paddick’s intervention, taxpayers can’t be blamed for feeling fleeced after funding the round trip of nearly £9,000. Were no economy class flights available? Unelected peers talking about being ‘entitled’ to travel business class on the taxpayer will do nothing to instil public confidence that they are being careful with our hard-earned cash."
