Angela Rayner’s flight-mad staff have racked up a near £5million bill and enough air miles to go around the world 13 times.
Civil servants and ministers within the deputy prime minister’s housing department have accumulated 319,872 miles through international air travel over 12 months.
The distance is long enough to circle the globe nearly 13 times.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s yearly figures reveal that international flight distances reached 514,785 kilometres by April.
It marks a substantial increase from 108,060 kilometres during the preceding 12-month period.
This represents a 34 per cent rise in business travel compared to the previous year, with international journeys showing particularly significant growth.
The department’s official travel expenses totalled £4.7million.
The journeys produce carbon emissions equivalent to 169.4 tonnes of CO2 – matching the environmental benefit of cultivating 8,500 trees annually.
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Angela Rayner’s staff have racked up enough air miles to go round world 13 times
Opposition politicians have targeted Rayner over her February visit to Ethiopia and Ghana.
Scrutiny intensified after reports emerged that she had enquired with civil servants about incorporating a safari excursion into the official programme.
One source told the Times: “She was told that’s not how these things worked.”
Rayner and officials cost the taxpayers £20,000 spent on “a combination of business and economy flights” to and from Africa.
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Opposition politicians have targeted Rayner over her February visit to Ethiopia and Ghana
The travel statistics show the current administration’s international flight distances are nearly five times greater than those recorded under previous Conservative ministers in the same department.
The department attributed the rise partly to travel by officials from Homes England, the housing quango, to international conferences.
David Simmonds, the Tory Shadow Housing Minister, said: “This is a totally unserious use of taxpayer money or officials’ time.
“Angela Rayner should be focusing on delivering the homes this country needs, but Labour have no plans to deliver, not gallivanting around the world playing at deputy prime minister.”
Some have eyed up the Deputy Prime Minister as Sir Keir Starmer’s replacement after his authority within the Labour Party has been questioned, forcing him to undergo several U-turns.
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Some have eyed up Angela Rayner as Sir Keir Starmer’s replacement after his authority within the Labour Party has been questioned, forcing him to undergo several U-turns
A total of 47 Labour MPs rebelled against Starmer’s welfare reforms, cutting the Prime Minister’s majority to just 75.
However, dozens of Labour MPs dropped their opposition to the welfare reforms after Starmer put forward 11th hour concessions.
Labour set a target for departments to reduce emissions from domestic flights by at least 30 per cent compared with 2017-18, with Rayner’s department doubling since then.
A spokesman for the department said: “Overall departmental emissions from business travel have decreased by 33 per cent compared to the 2017-18 baseline, and international travel emissions remain lower than the 2017-18 baseline.”