MPs’ spending on overseas trips soars

Spending by MPs on overseas trips to exotic locations such as Bermuda and Rio de Janeiro soared last year, leaving taxpayers with a £1.4 million bill.

Commons select committee members spent the huge sums on so-called fact-finding trips abroad in the 2023/24 financial year.

This is 52 per cent higher than the £936,000 they spent on visits in 2022/23.

Select committees are groups of backbench MPs who scrutinise government departments on how successful they are at delivering their policies.

But critics have asked why they cannot speak to representatives abroad via Zoom or even on the telephone, rather than spending so much on flights and hotels.

The cost of the visits would cover the winter fuel payments of more than 7,000 pensioners.

Many of the 48 trips taken in the last parliamentary session were to far-away places, or seemed only tangentially connected to the supposed role of the select committee.

In total, 11 of the visits for select committee members and their staff cost taxpayers more than £50,000, with the highest coming in at nearly £90,000.

The Scottish affairs committee, which investigates issues affecting people north of the border, travelled to San Francisco, New York and Washington DC at a cost of £77,321 to consider issues such as “intergovernmental relations” and the “Scottish space sector”.

Members of the public administration committee enjoyed a visit to Bermuda as part of an inquiry into overseas territories, costing £73,140.

The environmental audit committee on polar research flew to the Falkland Islands, Antarctica and Chile to look at the “Antarctic environment” despite the carbon footprint. The trip cost £59,696.

The public accounts committee, meanwhile, whose remit is ensuring value for money, spent £64,377 on a trip to Washington DC to look at “financial accountability”.

Members of the foreign affairs committee went on nine trips including to Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and Cairo, while the international development committee travelled to Barbados and Dominica.

The most expensive trip – costing £89,320 – was taken by the business and trade committee to Washington DC and New York as part of an inquiry on export-led growth. The same committee spent almost as much on a trip to South Korea on the same issue.

The home affairs committee travelled to Singapore as part of an inquiry into fraud, costing £51,633 and the energy security and net zero committee went on a number of trips to the Cop28 summit in Dubai.

The information is contained in the sessional returns for the House of Commons.

John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers will rightly be suspicious that many MPs were using their last months in parliament for poorly disguised foreign jollies on the public credit card.

“While there is a time and a place for politicians to travel overseas as part of their duties, the explosion in spending will raise more than a few eyebrows, particularly given the enormous problems the country faces at home.

“Our MPs should be focusing on fixing the many issues we face domestically and carefully consider whether upcoming or proposed taxpayer-funded foreign travel is genuinely going to benefit their constituents.”

Rules drawn up by the House of Commons state that committee visits must always be related to an inquiry.

Before proposing an overseas visit, committees should always consider whether the information they seek could be obtained by written evidence, by oral evidence given in this country by witnesses from overseas or by video-conferencing.

The rules state that no select committee should normally make more than one visit beyond Europe in any one financial year, except the defence, foreign affairs, international development and the business and trade committees.

MPs are urged to take value for money, safety, time costs and reliability into consideration when deciding upon transport options.

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