UK Ministers have spent more than £1.3mn on official overseas travel in order to secure deals as Britain prepares to leave the EU, with Theresa May promising to create a 'truly global Britain'. The Foreign Office increased its ministerial travel budget by more than 70% to £260,000 after the June 2016 referendum, according to an analysis by the Government, The Times has reported. This was despite the department losing responsibility of Europe.
Much of these travels have been made to India, costing Prime Minister Theresa May- a bill of £338,763, the highest so far.
The new Department for International Trade ran up a bill of £131,000 as Dr Liam Fox and his Ministers scoured the world for deals. Across the Government there have been 25 trips to the US and 13 to China. While the Department for Exiting the European Union spent only £4,430 travelling to the Continent, the vast majority of long-haul travel was in business class and does not include the cost of officials. Most cabinet ministers travel with at least 3 civil servants. Each Minister spent about £32,000 for registered trips, Boris Johnson spent a total of £88,288, travelling to over 15 places, and flew more than 45,000 miles.
Alok Sharma MP, his junior Minister reportedly travelled over 93,000 miles- nearly equivalent to going around the world four times that cost £47,771. Dr Liam Fox, the international trade secretary travelled to India, US, UAE and South America, costing a total of £37,345. While Chancellor Philip Hammond and Energy Minister Greg Clark both went to India in the beginning of this month to discuss possible post-Brexit deals, they have spent £29,311 and £29,109 respectively. Minister for International Development, Priti Patel spent £23,085 in 3 months, the newspaper further reported.
The only area where costs decreased substantially compared with the same period in 2015 was because an RAF plane was acquired for travelling, but Downing Street has racked up £639,000- the largest travel bill so far- out of which more than half the money was spent in India, when PM Theresa May visited New Delhi and Bangalore in November 2016 to meet Indian PM Narendra Modi.
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat leader ridiculed the spending of Mr Johnson and Dr Fox and Harry Davis, campaign manager at the taxpayer's Alliance said that while there was some reason for the spending, it needed to be justified, The Times reported.
A spokesperson for the Foreign Office however said its ministers travelled to around many countries to fulfil their duties. “Boosting trade opportunities is often a part of these visits but they also involve building partnerships on peacekeeping and defeating extremism,” he reportedly said.
