Plans to spend up to £40m on a contract for helicopters to transport Rishi Sunak and ministers have been shelved after sustained criticism of the prime minister’s fondness for regularly flying short distances.
The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that the current contract will come to a close at the end of September and will not be renewed. Official helicopter travel for ministers, also used by senior defence officials, “will be fulfilled by other means, including other assets available to HMG”, it said, giving no other details.
In December, the MoD advertised a tender for a new contract for what is officially known as the Rotary Wing Command Support Air Transport Helicopter Service, worth between £30m and £40m, and running to the end of 2027.
With provision for up to 500 hours of use a year, the contractor would provide helicopters, crewed by RAF personnel and based at the Northolt airbase in west London, to take them any distance up to 250 miles.
However, this tender has now been withdrawn. The longstanding contract, provided by Northamptonshire-based Sloane Helicopters, will finish this month. The company has already put the craft regularly used by Sunak up for sale.
The MoD and Downing Street declined to say why the plans have changed. However, Sunak has been criticised for helicopter trips of little more than 100 miles (160km), to places easily reachable by train, and it is possible that ministers were fearful of a backlash if they signed a contract costing £30m or more.
A Labour party source said: “This would have been Sunak’s equivalent of Boris Johnson’s yacht, and it is no surprise he’s been forced to scrap them both. The PM’s helicopter addiction has cut through with the public as proof not just that he is totally out of touch, but that he doesn’t think he should have to use the same roads and railways as the rest of us.
“No 10 have bowed to the inevitable by cancelling this contract, but the question now is whether Sunak will also change his behaviour, or whether he will carry on chartering individual helicopters to travel round Britain at the taxpayer’s expense, or use a rota of private planes and helicopters lent to him by Tory donors.”
On Tuesday, Sunak used a helicopter for an engagement in Norwich, a trip of little more than 100 miles. In May, he flew to and from Southampton to visit a pharmacy for an NHS-related announcement, a 160-mile round trip where the train takes an hour and 15 minutes each way.
For personal use, the prime minister previously took private helicopters from London to his North Yorkshire constituency, and to visit the billionaire Arora family, who live 2 miles from Manchester airport.
Downing Street says Sunak’s means of travel vary, and “are always decided with consideration to the most efficient and best use of his time, in the interests of the taxpayer”.
