For every visit by Members of Parliament to Israel or Iraq, there are lots of all-expenses-paid junkets to such exotic locations as the Maldives and the Cayman Islands. Jane Merrick, Nina Lakhani and Emily Dugan report
A new front opened up in the Westminster expenses scandal last night after it emerged that MPs are travelling around the world on hundreds of trips a year paid for by the taxpayer and foreign governments.Research by The Independent on Sunday has uncovered details of nearly 200 fact-finding missions and study tours to more than 60 countries in the past two years – equivalent to two trips for every week of the year.
The visits, many of which are paid for by public funds, are over and above the overseas work of select committees, which already takes MPs around the globe. Those not funded by the taxpayer are offered as “freebies” by foreign governments, whose guests often fly business class and stay in luxury hotels.
Some of the tours clearly have serious aims, including MPs paying visits to Israel and Palestine and Iraq to learn about the conflicts in those countries. But others appear to be more questionable, including junkets organised by the hundreds of all-party parliamentary groups created for the sole intention of forging links with different countries – including destinations such as the Cayman Islands and the Maldives.
