Foreign Secretary Liz Truss (Stefan Rousseau/PA)
(Picture: PA Wire)The news that Foreign Secretary Liz Truss used a government jet to fly a team of around 14 people to Australia at an eye-watering cost of £500,000 to the taxpayer will likely have irked many. It’s not only the monetary cost of the trip that seems outlandish, but the ecological damage likely caused with this round trip creating almost 500 tonnes of CO2 emissions which isn’t exactly a great look for the country that just hosted Cop26.
There’s also the fact that Truss has gone on the record before about the importance of all public sector staff spending public money frugally, saying they “should spend taxpayers’ money with at least the care they would give to their own.” Perhaps Liz has the kind of cash to be splashing out on such trips as they above, but this is very much unlikely.
This has amounted to opposition parties labelling her “lavish Liz”, with Labour’s Angela Rayner saying the use of the private jet showed “the public exactly quite how little respect this Conservative Government has for taxpayers’ money”.
She added: “It is obscene that Government ministers are jet setting yet are hiking taxes and refusing to do anything to help working families when they are feeling the pinch of the cost of living crisis.”
What do you think of Foreign Secretary Liz Truss using a government private jet to fly to Australia on work? A lavish expense or one that you think can be justified? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below for the chance to be featured on the ES website tomorrow.
