Sir Keir Starmer branded ‘hypocrite’ over £25,000 private jet to Cop28 provided by Qatar
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Sir Keir Starmer has been branded a “hypocrite” after it emerged he took a £25,000 private jet while at a climate summit in the Middle East.
The Labour leader used a plane provided by the government of oil-rich Qatar to fly to and from the Cop28 summit in Dubai last month.
He was whisked from the conference to neighbouring Doha for talks with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the country’s leader.
Sir Keir has repeatedly attacked Rishi Sunak over his use of private planes and helicopters, including at this week’s Prime Minister’s Questions. He said Mr Sunak “doesn’t get” how many Britons felt because “the view on the ground is very different to that from his private jet”.
The Labour leader made a similar jibe last June when he told the MPs: “I’m sure from the vantage point of his helicopter, everything might look fine”.
Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, has also attacked the Tories over their use of private jets and said Labour ministers would fly commercial.
Last year she pledged to show more “respect” for taxpayers’ money by stopping “ministers going around on private jets rather than on normal flights”.
Sir Keir had also previously promised to boycott Qatar over its human rights record, insisting that he would not visit the Middle Eastern nation.
He was asked by LBC last autumn if he would attend the final of the football World Cup, which was being hosted in the country, if England made it.
To which he replied: “No, I wouldn’t. I’d love to but I think that the human rights record is such that I wouldn’t go and that’ll be the position of the Labour party.”
Sir Keir’s latest parliamentary declaration of financial interests, published on Friday, showed the private jet trip for him and three staffers cost £25,508.
The hour-and-a-half trip between Dubai and Doha is served by regular flights. Sir Keir flew from the UK to the conference on a commercial plane.
The organisers of Cop28, which the Labour leader attended for three days in December, separately paid £765 for his car travel to and from the conference.
Lee Anderson, the Tory deputy chairman, said: “Starmer is a hypocrite. He is winging it and taking the British public for a ride”.
Sir Keir met world leaders including the King of Jordan and the president of Brazil, as well as John Kerry, the US climate envoy, during his time in Dubai.
A spokesman for the Labour leader said: “Keir Starmer was pleased to accept an invitation from His Highness The Emir of Qatar. Their conversation focused on the current crisis in the Middle East.”
