Indian trip for Prescott and Duchess cost pounds 90,500

JOHN Prescott came under fire from the Tories yesterday after it emerged that the public purse paid pounds 90,500 for him to represent the government at Mother Teresa's funeral.

The Deputy Prime Minister was accompanied to the funeral in Calcutta in September 1997 by the Duchess of Kent. John Redwood, who was appointed as Mr Prescott's opposite number in the Shadow Cabinet last week, said he would demand an explanation of how the trip came to cost so much.

"If the whole of that pounds 90,000 was spent on John Prescott's personal travel arrangements, it was a right royal rip-off of the tax-payer," he said.

"I am all for the Deputy Prime Minister travelling around, but there must be some proportion in the style of travel."

Downing Street, which paid for the trip, was unable to produce a full explanation of how the money was spent. The cost of the visit emerged as details were released of all ministerial trips costing more than pounds 500 since the 1997 election.

Mr Prescott's trip to India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, where he went diving off coral reefs in March this year, cost pounds 6,925. Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, was the most-travelled minister, with 85 trips under his belt since May 1997. His most expensive trip was to Jakarta, Manila, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore in August 1997, accompanied by 14 officials, costing pounds 169,000.

The Prime Minister took 48 trips, spending pounds 149,919 on a three-day visit to South Africa in January this year during which he held talks with Nelson Mandela and his successor as South African president, Thabo Mbeki.

The Prime Minister's trip to the Far East in October last year, taking in Peking, Shanghai and Hong Kong, cost pounds 134,314.

Mr Blair also undertook five official meetings during his holiday in August 1998, including two trips to Northern Ireland, at a cost of pounds 27,541.

Costs incurred by Mr Blair's family were reimbursed by them, but full details were not given.

Frank Dobson, the Secretary of State for Health, represented the Government at England's World Cup soccer clash with Romania in France in June last year at a cost to the taxpayer of pounds 896.

The Government also published overall figures in 1997-98 prices. The figures showed that the cost of ministerial trips rose under the Tories from pounds 6.5m in 1993-94 to pounds 7.8m in 1996-97. In 1998-99 the total was pounds 4.97m.

A guide to ministerial travel, drawn up in July 1997 and released with the figures, stressed the importance of "propriety, efficient use of resources, cost consciousness, security and public accountability".

"Official transport should not normally be used for travel arrangements arising from party or private business except where this is justified on security grounds," it said.