Commons Speaker John Bercow faced questions today over his expenses today after it emerged he amassed a £96,000 travel bill “gallivanting” around the world.
Costs incurred by Mr Bercow and his entourage included £16,000 on travel in a chauffeur-driven car and £63,000 on flights.
It is the first time the Speaker’s taxpayer-funded travels for the full three years since the election have been detailed. The most expensive flight was £11,250 for Mr Bercow and two aides to travel business class to Ottawa in September 2010.
A chauffeur drove him to his official portrait artist, and to Parliament’s spending watchdog just a mile from his workplace. The details were published by Parliament under freedom of information laws.
Matthew Sinclair, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said the Speaker should be “keeping politicians in check in the Commons rather than gallivanting across the globe”. But a Commons spokesman said UK trips enabled him to undertake “outreach activity” and the “vast majority” of travel abroad was economy class.
