Liz Truss spent more than £15,000 of taxpayer money on catering during Australia flight

Former prime minister Liz Truss spent more than £15,000 on in-flight catering on a single flight to Australia while she was foreign secretary.

As revealed in a freedom of information response to the Labour Party, British taxpayers paid more than £1,400 per head for 12 government officials on a single trip to Australia.

Catering for the Australia flights in January 2022 cost £15,639 in total, which was 3.4 per cent of the total £454,626.59 cost of the tickets, Politico reported.

The government said the sums also include wider logistics of running a private aeroplane, such as catering equipment, as well as food and drink.

A spokesperson for Ms Truss told The Independent: “Liz had many responsibilities as foreign secretary, but it ought to be self-evident that organising the in-flight catering on overseas trips was not among them.”

Catering for Ms Truss’ South East Asia trip in November 2021 totalled £12,742, which was 4.2 per cent of the overall £300,545.39 flight cost. Another visit to Indonesia in the summer of 2022 cost £5,604 in in-flight catering, which was £431 per head and 1.5 per cent of the total £369,000 cost.

Labour frontbencher Emily Thornberry said the figures showed ministers were “determined to have their hugely expensive cake and eat it”.

She added politicians were “booking planes which are for them and them alone, ignoring the burden on the taxpayer, and indifferent to the cost of living crisis facing the rest of the country”.

The Mail on Sunday reported last year that Ms Truss was contesting a £12,000 government bill relating to her use of the grace-and-favour country house at the Chevening estate that she had access to as foreign secretary.