No 10 has defended Rishi Sunak’s choice to fly to Leeds when visiting a healthcare centre, despite its net zero climate change pledge, arguing it was the “most effective use of his time”.
Labour accused the PM of “extravagance” in opting to fly to the city for what the party’s deputy leader Angela Rayner dubbed a “photo op”.
Publicly-funded photos taken by No 10 showed the PM boarding an RAF plane to West Yorkshire, where he spoke with staff and patients at the Rutland Lodge Medical Practice in Chapel Allerton, a suburb of Leeds.
Ms Rayner called on Mr Sunak to reveal how much money was “wasted” on what Labour calculated was a flight lasting just over half-an-hour.
“Families will be rightly angered by this show of extravagance by Rishi Sunak,” she said. “Patients and staff are crying out for action from this government in the midst of a crisis in our NHS while the prime minister jets from London to Leeds for a photo op.”
Ms Rayner added: “The prime minister must come clean about how much taxpayers’ money was wasted on this 36-minute plane journey for a three-hour visit at the height of a cost-of-living crisis.”
It is not clear where he boarded the plane, but a journey from London to Leeds on the train — a distance of about 200 miles — would have taken around two and a half hours.
Asked why Mr Sunak decided to fly rather than take a train, Downing Street said there was a “great deal of pressure” on his schedule.
The PM’s official spokesman said transport decisions “will always be done in the interest of what is the most effective use of his time, enabling him to get around the entirety of the UK when there is a great deal of pressure on his time.
The No 10 official added: “It will vary (depending) on what is the most appropriate use.”
The UK government s signed up to a pledge of having a net zero carbon emissions economy by 2050. In July 2021, ministers set out a Jet Zero strategy, containing their plans for creating a net zero aviation sector, including switching to less polluting fuels.
It did not include discouraging air travel but making travellers more aware of the emissions involved when flying instead.
Back in London on Tuesday, Mr Sunak chaired the first cabinet meeting of the year. In a readout of what was said, a No 10 spokesman said Mr Sunak had touched on the five priorities he announced in his new year’s speech last week.
He told his ministers that those priorities — halving inflation, growing the economy, reducing debt, cutting NHS waiting lists and stopping small boat Channel crossings — were “not the limits of the government’s ambition but the foundations on which we can help build a better future”.
At the meeting, chancellor Jeremy Hunt also gave an “overview of the main issues affecting the UK economy”, with the government focused on “reducing economic inactivity”, Downing Street said.
