Spending Rp9 Billion On A Plane Charter While On Service To Australia, British Foreign Minister Liz Truss Reaps Criticism

JAKARTA - Britain's Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has defended her decision to charter a private jet for a trip to Australia, after reports estimated the trip would cost taxpayers around £500,000.

Critics said the move was a grotesque abuse of public money, while Minister Truss said government planes were available "precisely so Government ministers can travel".

The Independent reported that the Secretary of State had opted for charter flights for his trip last week due to security concerns, even though commercial services were available.

The newspaper said he had traveled on an Airbus A321, a senior source told them it would cost £500,000 to operate.

"I'm on a government plane," Truss said on a trip to Northern Ireland, citing The National News Jan. 28.

"That's why we have government planes, to allow government ministers to do government services. And that's what I fly to Australia for," he explained.

Further asked about whether it would be better to use commercial flights, he said: "Every Government decision is based on value for money."

"We have government planes specifically so ministers, like me in my role as Secretary of State, can go and do work overseas, which ultimately benefits the British people," he said.

The Foreign Ministry office said the trip was within the rules set out by ministerial regulations.

Officials say using private jets allows travel delegates to travel together and have private discussions on sensitive security issues.

They said that commercial flights were fully booked, and that using commercial flights would separate Truss from the delegation and its security team. In addition, charter flights give him the option of returning to the UK early if needed.

Separately, Labor Deputy Leader Angela Rayner said the decision to fly privately shows the public "very little respect this Conservative government has for taxpayers' money".

In a policy paper entitled 'Back to Black' co-authored with Ms Truss in 2009, she and others outline how public sector workers must be careful with what they spend, starting with "traveling economy rather than business class".

The ministerial regulation says ministers can use non-scheduled flights "when scheduled services are not available, or when it is essential to travel by air, with official or parliamentary service requirements or security considerations, making it impossible to travel on scheduled services."

Chris Bryant, Labor's chair of the House of Commons standards committee, tweeted: "By comparison, my first trip as secretary of state was on easyJet at 6am and we didn't pay for fast boarding."

Separately, a Foreign Office spokesman said: "The Secretary of State needs to travel overseas, to pursue UK interests around security, trade and technology, as he did during this visit to Australia."

"Travelling in this way allows ministers to have private discussions, on sensitive security issues and the flexibility to respond to rapidly changing global events."

"This trip uses government transportation and fully complies with the rules," he said.

The plane Truss uses for his trips recently underwent a makeover, according to photos shared online last year. The plane was painted in the colors of the British flag, as was the larger private plane available to the minister, RAF Voyager, which in 2020 was controversially given a new paint job costing nearly £1 million.

The contract for the Airbus A321 says the aircraft "must be operated in a Global UK style", with an accompanying provision saying it can only be used by the government.