David Cameron has been criticised for hiring a luxury jet worth an estimated £42m for a recent tour of central Asia. The foreign secretary travelled on the Embraer Lineage 1000 for a five-day visit to Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia last week, the Mirror reported. Union Aviation, the charter firm that operates the jet, said on its website that a sommelier helps pick the onboard wine selection and that it provides a food menu suitable for “the most demanding passengers”. The plane’s other features include its own dining table, in addition to a separate relaxation zone with extra-long sofas. The shadow attorney general, Emily Thornberry, posted on X: “I get that David Cameron may need to charter a plane when travelling to multiple countries in one week, but that does not justify spending hundreds of thousands of pounds at taxpayers’ expense to hire one of the most luxurious private jets on the market.”
Prior to Cameron’s tour, the government said the foreign secretary would use the visit to promote opportunities for British businesses and announce £50m of new funding to support the sovereignty and independence of states across the region. A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson said: “The foreign secretary’s job requires him to travel abroad to pursue the UK’s 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 routinely published for transparency.” Last year, Cameron’s predecessor James Cleverly was criticised for a bill of about €400,000 (£348,000) when he used the same type of plane for an eight-day tour of the Caribbean and Latin America. Rishi Sunak has also been criticised for his fondness for short-distance air travel for journeys within the UK. In February 2023 the prime minister travelled to London from Dorset by helicopter and flew back to south-west England by jet the next morning, Downing Street said. The previous month, Sunak took domestic flights in RAF jets three times in 10 days. He took a 40-minute flight on a 14-seat aircraft to an event in Blackpool, Lancashire, where he took questions from the public. It came after flights to Scotland and Leeds.