Sir Lindsay Hoyle splurged £25,000 on a junket to Malaysia - sending his travel expenses soaring to more than £300,000 since becoming the Commons Speaker
Sir Lindsay Hoyle’s foreign travel expenses have surged past £300,000 after more than £25,000 was spent on his latest long-haul jaunt.
The Commons Speaker racked up the bill on a trip to Malaysia in February, as he looks to expand the centuries-old job into a full-blown diplomatic role.
The taxpayer was billed £23,264 for business class flights and £1,163 for hotels for him and two staff. A further £418 was splashed on ‘meals and subsistence’ and nearly £300 on taxis and other ground transportation.
It was his second-most expensive trip and comes despite a growing backlash about the lavish scale of his travel expenses.
Only a trip to the Australian capital Canberra, in January 2023, was more expensive (£40,599).
It means that, since becoming Speaker in November 2019, Sir Lindsay has splashed £324,874 on 25 ‘non-regular’ foreign trips.
The vast bulk of this - more than £250,000 - has been spent over the last two and a half years because of the Covid-19 pandemic, when travel was largely grounded.
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Clearly weeks of dreadful headlines hasn’t deterred Sir Lindsay from tapping up taxpayers to fund his life of luxury.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle has come under fire for being the best travelled Commons Speaker in history, racking up expenses bills of more than £250,000 in little over two years
Sir Lindsay said his trip to Malaysia, where he met his counterpart Johari bin Abdul, was worth £25,000-worth of taxpayers' cash because it helped to 'further parliamentary relations'
Sir Lindsay also met with officials in Sarawak, a province on the island of Borneo, where he said Britain was hoping to 'cooperate with Sarawak in various fields especially related to renewable energy such as green energy and hydrogen'
‘The Speaker clearly has a wildly outsized view of his role, which should be focused on acting as the presiding officer of the House of Commons.
‘His role as ambassador for the institution is important for visiting dignitaries, but this does not require the four seasons foreign diplomacy for which he is now known.
‘MPs should be making it clear to him that they expect a significant reining in of foreign travel and significant reductions in cost when travel is genuinely necessary.’
Last month the Mail revealed how Sir Lindsay had splurged over £250,000 on foreign jaunts since October 2022.
He racked up a bill of more than £180,000 on first and business class plane tickets alone because he won’t fly economy, with thousands more spent on chauffeur-driven cars, stays at luxury five-star resorts and swanky restaurants.
Several of the taxpayer-funded bills appeared to have little to do with his role, including giving speeches at the University of Gibraltar - where he is Chancellor - and the University of California.
His latest trip to Malaysia was to the capital Kuala Lumpur to visit the country’s Parliament and the province of Sarawak on the nearby paradise island of Borneo to hold meetings with local officials.
According to official records, the trip was to ‘further parliamentary relations’ and to fulfil an ‘invitation of the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Malaysia and the Prime Minister of Malaysia’.
Sir Lindsay also met with officials in Sarawak, a province on the island of Borneo, during his latest jaunt
Sir Lindsay told of his delight in an unearthed video clip at being back in Malaysia in February, when he racked up a £25,000 expenses bill
Sir Lindsay also visited the Sarawak province on the island of Borneo during his visit, known for its lush beaches and dense rainforest
Sir Lindsay did not meet the Malaysian PM during the trip. But he did hold meetings with his Malaysian counterpart, the country’s law minister, senior Malaysian MPs and UK business figures based there.
He also met the premier and Speaker for Sarawak’s Parliament.
In a video clip of him speaking at an undisclosed location during the trip, Sir Lindsay said: ‘What a wonderful visit it’s been.
‘The fact I came here and have been to the Parliament, meeting both speakers, meeting the chairs of the [Malaysian Parliament] select committees, talking about democracy.
‘And that’s what matters about my role and the Speaker’s role here, and how we can share the best information by working together.’
He added: ‘I’ve got to say what a fantastic visit we’ve had, going up to Sarawak.
‘And I’ve got to say that was brilliant.’
In an interview this month while visiting Ukraine, Sir Lindsay tried to justify his lavish travel expenses by claiming it was part of efforts to ‘speak truth to power to the Chinese and to Russia’.
But critics point out that this is traditionally the job of ministers and diplomats and that his role is mostly to ‘sit in a chair and keep quiet’.
A spokesman for Sir Lindsay last night said: ‘The Speaker visited Malaysia in February to further strengthen the ties between the two Commonwealth nations...and [it] was an opportunity to share best practice on parliamentary governance - including Malaysia’s recent introduction of PMQs - and the functioning of select committees in how they scrutinise the work of government.’
