Fact check: How many UK party leaders use private jets?

Some of the UK’s top politicians are known to swap trains for private planes despite the environmental costs.

Rishi Sunak, Sir Keir Starmer and Nigel Farage have all reportedly flown private, avoiding the trials and tribulations of flying commercial reserved for mere mortals like their voters.

Jet setting on a private plane may once have been aspirational, but it now seems outdated and out-of-touch amid the cost of living and climate crises.

And the General Election campaign has only served to highlight the nation’s myriad transport issues, from crumbling railways to potholes and overpriced fares.

But it’s also put a spotlight on the candidates and how they travel up and down the country on the campaign trail.

Rishi’s £500,000 private flight bill

The Prime Minister is said to have used more private jets and helicopters than any of his predecessors, while Sir Keir admitted flying private to get to a campaign rally in Scotland last month.

Mr Sunak racked up £500,000 worth of private jet trips in just over a week in 2022,which the Lib Dems at the time labelled a ‘shocking waste of taxpayers’ money,’ the Guardian reported.

One of the trips saw No 10 spend almost £108,000 on private flights to and from the Cop27 meeting in Egypt – the world’s biggest climate change summit.

A spokesman for the Conservatives told Metro.co.uk: ‘Just like Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister occasionally uses a private aircraft as it is the most efficient use of his time so he can get on with the job as delivering for the people of the United Kingdom.’

Sir Keir said the day after taking a private jet in May that they ‘needed to get very quickly to Scotland from Wales and we have to use the most efficient form of transport in the middle of a very, very busy General Election campaign.’

He said they ‘offset the carbon, we always do whenever we use transport in air.’

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage was quizzed in 2019 about how he got to Strasbourg from London so quickly.

Mr Farage talked about Theresa May’s defeat on Tuesday evening in London before an interview with Channel 4 in Strasbourg, the home of the European Parliament, on Wednesday morning.

When asked by Channel 4 reporter Matt Frei about his ‘elitist’ mode of transport, Mr Farage responded ‘if the taxpayers want to fund it, I’d be delighted but I shan’t be asking them,’ Indy100 reported.

Call for new private jet super tax

Now, the Scottish Green party has called for a new super tax on private jet users.

It urged the next UK government to slap a £1,000 per head tax on private jet usersamid the ‘climate emergency.’

Lorna Slater, Scottish Green’s co-leader, said: ‘We are in a climate emergency, with the evidence all around us.

‘It is obscene that a small number of very wealthy people are jetting around the globe in climate wrecking private jets.

‘There is absolutely no justification for something so needless and destructive, not when the stakes are so high and the consequences are so severe.’

How do other party leaders travel?

Unsurprisingly, the Green party leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay are not known for flying private.

A spokesperson for the party said in a statement: ‘Neither of our co-leaders have used private jets during the campaign, nor at any other time.

‘It wouldn’t be the right thing to do. Party leaders of all parties should lead the way by not using private jets, which are often funded by private donors.’

Liberal Democrat Ed Davey, who has made headlines on the campaign trail for his stunts, reportedly received ten donations worth a total of £61,500 between 2013 and 2020, according to the Daily Mail.

The party’s spokesperson said: ‘The Liberal Democrats would introduce a new super tax on private jet flights, and remove the VAT exemptions for private, first-class and business-class flights.’

The leader of Plaid Cymru Rhun ap Iorwerth has not ‘used a private jet once during the campaign,’ the party said.

Instead, he has been using ‘mostly public transport with some car journeys in between where rail or bus travel has not been possible,’ a Plaid spokesperson said.

The party wants to ‘disincentivize private jet use’ by increasing Air Passenger Duty and kerosene tax for private jets, it said.

Reform declined to comment while the Scottish National Party did not respond to a request for comment.

Britain’s politicians travel relatively modestly when compared to Hollywood stars.

Criticism of private flying has mounted since celebrities like Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Drake and Taylor Swift were revealed to be flying around the world on their own jets.

Kylie Jenner reportedly took her £70,000,000 Bombardier Global 7500 jet from Van Nuys to Ventura County on a flight which took just 12 minutes.

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