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Holidaying MPs afraid to admit they’re taking exotic breaks
Nicholas Cecil and Joe Murphy08.07.09
MPs are refusing to own up to holidays outside Europe this summer in the wake of public fury over their expenses.
Any plans to go to the Caribbean or other faraway destinations have been ditched or kept closely under wraps as the row over duckhouse, moat-cleaning and servants' quarters claims rumbles on in the recession.
Tory leader David Cameron is off to France while Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg is going back to the in-laws in a dusty village in central Spain.
Home Secretary Alan Johnson is flying to Portugal, Transport Secretary Lord Adonis to Bordeaux, Foreign Secretary David Miliband will be spending time in Italy and Ireland, and Health Secretary Andy Burnham is going to Scotland and Spain.
But other Cabinet ministers including millionaire Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward, who is married to the supermarket heiress Camilla Sainsbury and has a £5 million holiday home on the private Caribbean island of Mustique, were keeping tight-lipped about their holiday plans for “security reasons”.
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson was said to have not yet decided where he will be relaxing this summer. He was famously involved in the “yachtgate” spat with George Osborne last summer after they were both hosted by Russian aluminium tycoon Oleg Deripaska on his £60 million boat moored off Corfu.
Shadow chancellor Mr Osborne will be in Cornwall and Spain, while Chancellor Alistair Darling is among a pack of MPs bound for Scotland. He hopes to spend time in the Western Isles.
Gordon Brown went to Southwold in Suffolk last year but Downing Street was keeping his plans for this summer secret on security grounds.
The Scottish hills also beckon for Liberal Democrat deputy leader Vince Cable, MP for Twickenham. At the age of 66, he intends to go climbing, which may alarm some colleagues.
Not a single MP admitted to plans to holiday outside Europe, though Cabinet minister Tessa Jowell and shadow overseas aid secretary Andrew Mitchell will be taking part in projects abroad.
Ms Jowell will spend part of her summer break volunteering on a scheme to help impoverished children from the slums of Mumbai.
The Olympics Minister will fly to India at her own expense, by budget airline, to help take 40 “ragpicker” children on an adventure holiday with the charity Magic Bus, one of the Olympic Inspiration programme causes. She will spend time with field volunteers, giving them a course in leadership development during the private visit.
Energetic Ms Jowell will also use her summer holidays to get fitter.
After spending a few days walking in Scotland with Labour friends, she heads for a “boot camp” in the Peak District to be pushed to the limit.
Mr Mitchell will be leading Project Umubano, in late July and August, in Rwanda and Sierra Leone with more than 100 Conservative volunteers, including shadow Cabinet members, councillors and constituency activists.
Birdwatching on the Norfolk Broads is where Tory party chairman Eric Pickles will be found.
Simon Hughes, MP for North Southwark and Bermondsey and Lib-Dem climate change spokesman, has booked a boating holiday in the north of England, as well as planning to spend time in north Wales.
Transport minister Sadiq Khan, MP for Tooting, hasn't finalised plans but may spend his holidays, like his last, rediscovering London with his young daughter.
Reader views (19)
This is all very worrying as I work in the public sector. Hope the UK 'down and out' don't get on our case next!
- Rob, Ealing, UK
It is really sad reading some of the comments on MPs holiday.....when will you British grow up.....you have one of the best parliamentarian system, if not the best, with dedicated and almost un-corruptable MPs, even compared to American....and yet everyday, the press attacks them and most people are under the illusion that the MPs are responsible for how their mortgage is paid, not the market.....GROW UP BRITIAN....!!!
- Quentin De-La Bureh, London
most of the uk citizens have been left starving,homeless,and unemployed living of pittence benifits, never mind going on a holiday,i wonder how that shower can look themselves in the mirror.
- Sara, WALES
They sure need to give up their holidays to sort out their problems, some hope. It would go some way to restoring some credibility.
Maybe they're trying to avoid losing that money. Too bad the tax payer.
- Tony Islander, Herts
Oh for heavens sake - if they pay for their holiday out of their salaries then they're doing exactly the same as any other public sector worker.
And maybe Shaun Woodward has a £5million holiday home because he's married to a fabulously wealthy heiress - and therefore not funded by the taxpayer at all.
- Kitty, London
And when can we expect Sections 2-4 of The Fraud Act 2006 be used to 'give' those in this Fraudsters' Parliament' another stay (one to ten years according to The Fraud Act), with free bed and,in one of HM's well appointed penal establishments?
- John L Bell, Ellesmere Port, UK
Never quite understood this stay-at-home-to-save-money argument: a week in Egypt can be cheaper than a weekend in Torquay, which is rather baffling.
- Mdj E10, london uk
I have just recently been made redunant and with no prospect of another job I will not be able to have a holiday which I desperately need due to the fact that my father died a few months ago as well. Not a good year for me so far!
- Jan, Romford
As a self employed construction worker struggling to survive and pay my mortage.
What I want to know is, how do these MP's can sleep at night knowing after they abused their claims allowance can now take an un earned holiday ?
- Joe, Swanley Kent
These comments are the real legacy of the scandal that came from the claims thing - now no-one can do anything, any time, without being thought to be on the take (the point of the article). This is the lesson that all MPs should be absorbing. All MPs, no matter how pristine clean they may be, have been tarred with the same brush.
Once they start to actually really understand this maybe - just maybe - they will do something significant about it to regain some semblence of credibility with the public.
- Rogan, Irving
It's not where they're going that should be the issue. It's HOW LONG they've given themselves as holiday. Most people get 4-6 weeks holiday a year. But it seems Parliament is always in recess. Even when Parliament is sitting a significant number of MP's leave london on Wednesday night after PMQ's. I don't care if the want to spend 2-3 weeks on holiday in some exotic location. What I DO WANT is for MP's to spend more time doing what I pay them to do - be present in Parliament!!!
- Malcolm, London
I have never ever seen an MP in Butlins, are they snobs?
- Mickinlondon, london.
If this robbing of the public purse carries on, I can see riots in the streets ahead.
T H Leeds
- Thomas Hayes, Leeds UK
Your picture of the Camerons is typical of Dave. After having this photo-shoot done he went on a cruise in the Mediterranean and also visited Corfu to meet with a Newspaper Magnate for another Freebie. Please remember that Dave , green cyclist with added chauffeur, is an expert at the photo-shoot.
- Jack Jones, Ealing England
More abject spin and waffle.
I would be more interested in reading WHERE the millions of pensioners in the UK would be taking their holidays after yet another rip-off year under Gormless Brown and his band of parasite MP's.
- Reuben Camarar, Republic of Morecambe, UK
You are wrong RF of Yorks. Last year David Cameron's and George Osborne's holidays were paid for by Tory Benefactors. I find this more worrying as there will be a pay-back time.
- Jack Clouseau, Acton England
"Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward, who has a £5 million holiday home on Mustique, were keeping tight-lipped about their holiday plans for “security reasons”.
...This should read "for job security reasons".
- Kate, London
No doubt we will be treated to yet another totally natural and unposed picture of Dave and his family and George will be pictured wobbling along uncomfortably on a bike, dreaming of when he can give it up in exchange for a ministerial limo.
- Carl, London
It doesn't matter whether they "holiday" at home or abroad - one thing is certain - tax payers will be indirectly footing the bill. The money they pilfered from the public purse would pay for all of them to travel several times around the world.
- R.F., Yorks, UK
