PA
James Cleverly managed to rack up a bill of £655 per head on in-flight catering for a round trip to Kigali to sign a deportation deal that never deported a single person.
The former foreign secretary splashed out £165,561 chartering a private jet for his 11-hour visit to the Rwandan capital where he became a signatory to Rishi Sunak’s deportation deal.
He was joined on the jet with officials and a TV crew on 4th December and signed the new legally binding treaty alongside Rwanda’s foreign affairs minister, Vincent Biruta.
According to figures published in the Guardian, the catering for the eight-and-a-half hour return flight for Cleverly and his 14 officials cost £9,803.20, or £653.55 a head.
The TV crew paid for their own food.
Government officials said the catering bill includes the transportation costs of cooking equipment, which would also be accrued on a scheduled commercial flight, as well as the food and drink.
Cleverly, now the shadow home secretary, also spent £22,324.50, or £1,488.30 a head, on in-flight catering while travelling to Japan, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, New Zealand and Indonesia in July 2023.
The full cost of the flights to the five countries for Cleverly, then the foreign secretary, and his 14-person entourage was £561,531.04, according to an FoI request submitted by Labour concerning ministerial trips on the government’s Airbus A321 jet.
Related: Reeves set for inheritance raid on wealthy landowners such as James Dyson
