Foreign Secretary James Cleverly is using a £40million VIP plane to travel the globe like Kendall Roy in TV series Succession.
The top Tory has chartered the aircraft described as “one of the best luxury private jets money can buy” for his eight-day diplomatic jaunt around the Caribbean and Latin America.
The Embraer Lineage 1000E has a lounge area with big-screen TV and a master suite for the main VIP - with a queen size bed and private bathroom including a large shower cubicle.
The model featured in the fleet of corporate jets used by the billionaire Roy family in Succession.
The specific aircraft hired for Mr Cleverly’s trip has been used in the past year during concert tours by rival Korean girl bands Blackpink and Dreamcatcher.
While the cost to the taxpayer has not been divulged, the jet is understood to cost around £12,000 per hour to charter, including fuel.
Mr Cleverly so far has clocked up a flying time of almost 19 hours as he has visited Jamaica, Colombia and Chile, running up an estimated bill of around £228,000.
He is due to travel to Brazil before returning to the UK.
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Labour’s Emily Thornberry questioned why Mr Cleverly had chosen such an extravagant mode of transport for his trip.
She said: “Travelling overseas is an essential part of the Foreign Secretary’s role and this kind of diplomatic engagement in the Caribbean and Latin America was long overdue.
“But it beggars belief that - at a time when British families are running out of ways to make ends meet - James Cleverly thought it was appropriate to conduct this tour in the kind of luxury jet used by billionaires and pop stars, with British taxpayers footing the bill.
“This sort of ludicrous extravagance at the public expense just shows how out of touch Rishi Sunak’s government is.
“No wonder their response to the cost of living crisis has been so utterly hopeless when they have such little concept of what ordinary life is like for people in our country.”
YouTube plane enthusiasts Prop Clear made a video last year of them enjoying a short flight on the same plane as that used by Mr Cleverly.
"It doesn't feel like flying at all. It feels like you're just at home sitting on the couch,” they said. “After that, I won't be able to fly again with a normal airline."
Mr Cleverly is the first Foreign Secretary to visit the Caribbean since 2017 and the first to travel to South America since 2018.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "The Foreign Secretary’s job requires him to travel abroad to pursue UK interests.
"This was the most time effective way to do this in this instance.
"Value for money is taken into account in all travel decisions and costs are regularly published for transparency."
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