Labour promises crackdown on ministers using private jets

Ms Reeves said she will commit to ‘treating taxpayers’ money with the same respect that people treat their own money’

Ministers will be blocked from using private jets when they could get regular flights under a Labour government, Rachel Reeves says today.

In a bid to get the public to think “I can trust her with my money,” Ms Reeves said she will commit to “treating taxpayers’ money with the same respect that people treat their own money”.

“You haven’t had that from this government whether it was the Covid contracts signed off by Rishi Sunak when billions went in fraud or ministers going around on private jets rather than on normal flights,” the shadow chancellor told The Mirror.

Rishi Sunak regularly travels across Britain and abroad on helicopters or in a private RAF plane, including for journeys that would take just hours by train.

In July Labour accused Mr Sunak of breaching the ministerial code for using an RAF jet to fly to Scotland on Monday when scheduled flights were available.

The code states private planes should only be used when there is no alternative.

Also that month, Labour accused the government of a “culture of concealment” after it blocked the release of information detailing the prime minister’s taxpayer-funded private jet trips around the UK.

It came as Downing Street refused a request by The Independent to detail how many flights were taken, how much they cost or how much CO2 they admitted into the atmosphere.

Mr Sunak is not the only member of his government known to rely on private planes, with foreign secretary James Cleverly having travelled overseas in a £10,000 an hour luxury jet.

In total, ministers including the PM racked up a £4.7m bill for non-scheduled flights in the year to March.

Since becoming prime minister, Mr Sunak has taken one flight every eight days, including one journey to Southampton which would have taken a little over an hour by train.