Taxpayers pay £250,000 to send 50 civil servants and five ministers on a lavish trip to Beijing Olympics

Taxpayers will fork out around £250,000 to send some 50 ministers and officials to watch the Beijing Olympics, it was revealed yesterday.

Some individual trips will cost almost £10,000 each, official figures reveal.

Gordon Brown, Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Andy Burnham,

Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe and Trade Minister Lord Jones are all due to attend the Games this summer.

Each will be backed up by at least one private secretary and 'press office support', although the Prime Minister's team will be much larger.

Miss Jowell, who will attend the whole of the 17-day event, insists that the visits are a crucial opportunity to learn lessons for the London Olympics in 2012.

But the Tories are refusing to send any representatives - on cost grounds - even though they could well be in power by 2012.

They accused the Government of 'staggering' waste and pointed out that just seven ministers and officials went to the 2004 Games in Athens.

Tory spokesman Hugh Robertson said: 'There's no need for any more than the Prime Minister, Olympics Minister and possibly the sports minister. Any more, and jobs are being duplicated.'

Other members of the delegation include six 'observers', 17 staff from the Olympic Delivery Authority and a 'small number' of officials to forge trade links and represent UK interests.

Eight people from UK Sport, the organisation supporting elite athletes, will also be in Beijing at a total cost of £27,000, plus living expenses.

They will attend a series of meetings, including talks on anti-doping measures.

Expensive trip: The Beijing Olympics stadium where the ministers will be visiting

The chief executive and director of property for Sport England, which champions grassroots sport, will go for a week each  -  at £9,550 a time  -  as guests of the British Olympic Association.

The UK delegation will be swollen to more than 100 by a 'significant proportion' of the 200- strong London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, although their costs will not be met by the taxpayer.

Staff will also be seconded to the Beijing Organising Committee for about three months and take part in the closing ceremony and work in the media and operations centre.

Mr Brown has been under pressure to boycott the Games in response to China's brutal repression in Tibet.

However, he confirmed last month that he would attend the closing ceremony when the Olympic torch is passed to London.

A spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said: 'We are staging the Olympics ourselves in only a little over four years time and this is the only dry run we can witness.

'It would be extraordinary if we squandered this unique opportunity. It is only right that ministers should be there too to support British athletes as they aim for gold.'

Government staff attending:

·       A private secretary and "press office support" for each minister

·       Six officials to take part in an observer programme;

·       A "small number" to promote the UK as a trade destination

·       17 staff from the Olympic Delivery Authority;

·       The chief executive and director of property at Sport England at a cost of £20,000 for one week

·       Eight staff from UK Sport at a cost of £27,000, excluding "living expenses"

·       A "substantial proportion" of the 200 staff of the 2012 organising committee, Locog, which is self-funding.