Speaker Lindsay Hoyle was on a jolly to the British Virgin Islands when he says he learned Peter Mandelson was apparently a flight risk (unlikely).
No surprise he was in the Caribbean. Long been branded âlong-haul Hoyleâ at our expense, spending more than ÂŁ320,000 of taxpayersâ cash on foreign jaunts up until last summer since becoming Speaker in 2019.
He spent more than ÂŁ200,000 on first and business class plane tickets plus tens of thousands more spent on chauffeur-driven cars, stays at luxury five-star resorts and restaurants.
During a previous Caribbean tour in March 2023, he shelled out nearly ÂŁ5,500 chartering private planes to hop between the islands of St Maarten, Montserrat, Anguilla and Antigua.
In 2024, he spent ÂŁ22,000 for a five-day trip to meet his counterpart in the Cayman Islands, staying at the Westin Grand, where his room was billed at ÂŁ679 per night.
His snout. Our trough.
They really do take us for fools.