Cara-ckers Ken blows £35,000 on oil trip farce

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It cost £19,051 in flights and hotel bills for the Mayor and four aides to spend six days in Cuba, during which he spent around 30 minutes at an Olympic conference.

A further £16,491 was spent sending four more aides to Venezuela in advance of the Mayor, where he had hoped to conclude a deal with President Hugo Chavez on providing cheap oil for London buses, a deal first mooted when Chavez came to Britain earlier this year.

This part of the trip had to be abandoned after Chavez said he was too busy electioneering to meet the Mayor.

Mr Livingstone tried to justify the cost of the trips, claiming London had much to learn from Cuba about producing Olympic boxers. He also said he hoped to hold better Cuban festivals in the capital as a result of his visit. He said the price paid by taxpayers for the trip was "modest".

He faces a grilling tomorrow at the London Assembly, which last week passed a cross-party emergency motion demanding the costs be disclosed.

Today, Mike Tuffrey, Liberal Democrat group leader on the Assembly, said: "The Mayor's explanation for his trip does not wash. He should give the Assembly and Londoners a full explanation of why he has wasted council taxpayers-money in this way." Tory group leader Angie Bray said the "entire episode" had been "a disaster from start to finish".

In the last year the Mayor has travelled on business to Boston, New York, Milan, Berlin, Nice, Shanghai, Beijing and Los Angeles.

He said: "The costs of my visit to Cuba are modest and in line with the costs incurred on other Mayoral trips."