Keir Starmer spent £2,000 a week on a chauffeur-driven car when he was head of CPS

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Keir Starmer billed taxpayers nearly a quarter of a million pounds in travel costs while director of public prosecutions, it has emerged.

The future Labor leader has spent almost three times as much on expenses as his CPS successor Alison Saunders, including first-class flights overseas and a chauffeur-driven car.

< p>Sir Keir charged taxpayers £161,273 for the vehicle and driver despite living only four miles away and being directly accessible by tube from Crown Prosecution Service offices.

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The car cost taxpayers an average of £1,920 a week for nearly two years until he stopped using it after embarrassing media reports.

The The expenses have been in the public domain for more than a decade, but were reported again by newspapers days after Sir Keir doubled down on his controversial attack ad aimed at Rishi Sunak.

Their re-emergence could signal an escalation of attacks on Sir Keir himself following lurid claims about Mr Sunak's attitudes towards child molestation. The figures were obtained under FOI request by the UK website Declassified.

In recent months, Labor has criticized the government for what it says is lavish or wasteful spending.

In February, the party released a spending brief on government supply cards and accused ministers of 'living the high life and treating taxpayers like a slot machine'.

Other spending in the pot in Sir Keir's vast pot included a £4,914 flight to Hong Kong, a £6,808 flight to Washington DC and business and first class flights to Jamaica, Thailand and South Africa.

Sir Keir has served as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for five years from 2008 to 2013.

His successor Alison Saunders, who was also DPP for five years, spent £67,340, less than a third of Sir Keir's total.

Asked about Sir Keir's spending on the CPS, a Labor spokesman said: 'As the country's longest-serving prosecutor, Keir Starmer's work in bringing out the street criminals, locking up terrorists and bringing justice to victims involved vital collaboration abroad to dismantle international gangs and conspiracies against this country."