Tony Blair was accused of using the Queen's Flight as his personal taxi service after it emerged that he had spent more than ?130,000 of taxpayers' money on a string of family holidays.
In the first detailed breakdown of government air travel, it was revealed that the Prime Minister uses the royal flight up to 60 times a year and regularly commandeers it to fly him to and from his Sedgefield, Co Durham, constituency. He also uses it to go to Labour Party conferences. About half the flights were domestic, ranging from Birmingham to Devon and Scotland.
The Prime Minister's four holiday trips included his Christmas 2004 holiday to Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt with his wife and children, for which the flight cost ?31,000. Downing Street insisted that the Prime Minister had been willing to go on a standard commercial flight to Egypt but had been overruled by security advisers. The week-long holiday included a meeting with President Mubarak of Egypt and with King Abdullah of Jordan.
His holiday in Italy in August 1997 cost ?17,000; in France ?18,000 in August 1998; in Italy ?19,300 in August 1999; and Italy again ?16,000 in August 2000. In 2004 Mr Blair and his family combined his holiday to Italy with a trip to the Athens Olympics at a cost of ?18,000.
In contrast, the Queen uses the ageing royal fleet of planes, operated by 32 Squadron at RAF Northolt, around eight times a year. "She often uses a scheduled train too," a Buckingham Palace official said.
Margaret Beckett, the Environment Secretary, whose department is responsible for reducing both carbon emissions and air travel across Government, is one of the next highest users in the Cabinet. She has cost the taxpayer over ?100,000 on 110 flights in three years.
