Afternoon:
10°c
Taxpayer foots £700,000 bill for Blair's farewell
Joe Murphy, Political Editor22 Jul 2008
Tony Blair's "farewell tour" before quitting office cost taxpayers more than £700,000, it was revealed today.
Figures show that the former Prime Minister's final lap of world capitals was probably the most expensive prime ministerial itinerary ever - despite him being only weeks from retirement.
Mr Blair made nine trips abroad in his last three months in office, costing a total of £724,000. The highlights were a tour of the United States, a trip to the G8 summit in Germany, a high-profile visit to Tripoli to meet President Gadaffi, and a trip to the Vatican to meet the Pope.
His globe-trotting was mocked by David Cameron as "like a pop star" and dubbed "the long kiss goodbye".
Travelling to Washington, with 18 Government officials in tow, cost £319,100, while the Libyan leg, complete with 30 officials, was even more expensive, coming in at £314,755.
Mr Blair also dashed to Paris, Warsaw and twice to Berlin to negotiate the Lisbon Treaty and also attended European Council summits. For trips to Brussels, he flew in an RAF jet rather than taking the Eurostar.
Today's figures, which show travel for the financial year from April 2007 to the end of March this year, suggest that Gordon Brown has been more frugal in his travel arrangements.
Mr Brown's travel costs for the nine months he was in charge from June to March totalled just over £950,000.
Unlike his predecessor, he used the Eurostar to travel to Brussels and his individual trips cost less.
The biggest bill was for a pre-Christmas-trip covering both Iraq and Afghanistan to meet troop commanders on the ground and political leaders, including President Karzai. It cost £222,100.
A separate trip to Baghdad and Basra cost £197,600, while his tour of China and India cost £195,789. The fourth most expensive was his first trip to the USA as Prime Minister, which cost £117,530.
