Why are taxpayers footing the bill for Sir Lindsay’s champagne lifestyle? Freedom of information requests show the Labour MP has been enjoying £40,000 trips to Australia and other exotic locations.
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has been slammed as ‘Long-Haul Hoyle’ after revelations in the Daily Mail have emerged that he has burned through a staggering £250,000 of taxpayers’ money on luxury travel, first-class flights, and five-star hotels in just two years.
The Labour Speaker’s sky-high expenses have been laid bare by the Daily Mail, showing a jaw-dropping £180,000 spent on flights alone. Despite Labour’s past criticism of even Conservative Prime Ministers using planes for work, Sir Lindsay has refused to fly economy, always opting for first or business class—even for short-haul hops to Dublin and Italy.
Among the most outrageous expenses is a private chartered flight to the Caribbean paradise of Montserrat, a British Overseas Territory. His accommodation choices have also raised eyebrows, with nights at the St Regis in Doha, the Westin Grand in the Cayman Islands, and the Ritz-Carlton in Los Angeles, with some stays costing up to £900 per night.
Sir Lindsay’s February 2023 trip to LA came with a chauffeur-driven car bill exceeding £3,000—but even that wasn’t enough, as he also managed to rack up a £270 tab on the local taxi app, Lyft. A month earlier, a visit to Canberra, Australia, saw him splash over £4,500 on chauffeured vehicles.
One particularly eye-watering expense was an £800 subsistence bill at the St Regis in Doha, while his luxury Verona hotel for the G7 Speakers’ Conference in September last year cost £630 a night, including a single £400 meal and drinks bill.
Since October 2022, Sir Lindsay has embarked on 19 overseas jaunts, making him the most well-travelled Commons Speaker in British history. For comparison, his predecessor, John Bercow, took ten years to accumulate a similar foreign travel bill.
The Costly Globe-Trotting Breakdown:
- Cayman Islands (July/August 2024): £22,785.10 (Westin Grand Cayman Resort & Spa)
- Canberra, Australia (January 2023): £40,599 (Hotel Realm)
- Los Angeles (February 2023): £6,389.30 (Ritz-Carlton)
- Delhi (October 2023): £21,513.93 (Taj Mahal, New Delhi)
- Brazil (November 2024): £19,644.63 (Hotel not known)
- Tokyo & Kyoto (September 2023): £24,657.35 (New Otani Tokyo & Hotel Okura Kyoto)
- Jordan (May 2024): £14,762.91 (Four Seasons Amman)
- Doha (September 2024): £12,913.74 (St Regis Doha)
- Gibraltar (Multiple visits 2022-2024): £10,559.99 (Hotels not known)
- Verona (September 2024): £14,585.56 (Hotel Due Torri)
The extraordinary spending has sparked a furious backlash, with critics accusing Sir Lindsay of “acting like a Foreign Secretary on a luxury tour” rather than a neutral arbiter of Parliament.
With the cost-of-living crisis hitting Britons hard, the public will now be asking: why are taxpayers footing the bill for Sir Lindsay’s champagne lifestyle?
Read the full story in the Daily Mail here.
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All the remoaners have no excuse, I have been telling them they were wrong for 8 years! My Labour M.P Alan Whitehead fought tooth and nail to stop brexit- he blocked me and refused to talk to me. Most Labour M.P’s were right little devils trying to thwart brexit.