David Cameron has been accused of ‘swanning around like a Kardashian sister’ at taxpayers’ expense after hiring a £42million private jet for his latest trip.
The Foreign Secretary travelled to Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia on his five-day tour to central Asia last week.
But Labour has blasted the former PM for ‘unacceptable extravagance’ over his choice of taxpayer-funded transport.
It has emerged how Lord Cameron chartered an Embraer Lineage 1000 for his trip, which has been described as ‘one of the best luxury private jets money can buy’.
The luxurious aircraft is estimated to cost $52.5 million (£41.8 million) if bought new, or $14,850 per hour (£11,850) to hire.
Last year, James Cleverly—Lord Cameron’s predecessor as Foreign Secretary—was revealed to have spent £422,747 on hiring the same type of plane for a week-long tour of the Caribbean and Latin America.
Labour’s Emily Thornberry, the shadow attorney general, told the Mirror: ‘Sometimes, on a trip like this, ministers will need to use non-scheduled flights, and if the Government’s dedicated RAF jets are unavailable, they may have to charter a plane. That is all fine.
‘But in no world do those circumstances justify hiring one of the most expensive, most luxurious private jets on the market. That is an unacceptable extravagance.
‘It’s less than a year since James Cleverly was caught spending £422,000 on exactly the same type of jet. But instead of learning from that debacle, David Cameron has used it as a template.
‘They are supposed to use taxpayers’ money as carefully as possible, not swan around the world like a pair of Kardashian sisters at the British public’s expense.’
A Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘The Foreign Secretary’s job requires him to travel abroad. This was the most time-effective way to do this.’
In 2015, when he was PM, Lord Cameron claimed he was related to reality TV star Kim Kardashian.
Asked by Heat magazine whether he watched the TV show Keeping Up With The Kardashians, featuring Kim and her family, Mr Cameron replied: ‘No, but I’m related to them. Did you know I’m 13th cousins with them?’
Does this man have no accountability for his actions, misusing taxpayers’ money to fly in luxury? What he should have done is take a scheduled flight rather than waste taxpayers’ money.
Cameron is portraying himself as a corporate scumbag, and he has no business being anywhere near public money.
His self-interest and the advancement of those interests are his main priorities. He accepted the position since it offered him some authority and a large salary that let him get by on very little work.
He’s not working for the good of the British people. It is all about him, what he can take and how much cash he can embezzle, but then this is a perfect description of a cabinet minister and a large proportion of the House of Commons and the so-called Lords, and now they want to hit the disabled the hardest by trying to take or reduce their money while the likes of Cameron swan around for free. This man seems to have forgotten from what stone he crawled—perhaps he needs to crawl back from whence he came.
And don’t forget Cameron was the man with poor judgement—he gave the country a referendum on Brexit believing that everyone would vote to stay and when they didn’t, he ran away, showing that yellow stripe down his back, but now he’s a Lord, swanning around on our money.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 