No 10 defends flight to Caribbean going via Manchester to pick up Burnham

Critics decry ‘Air Miles Andy’ after plane that took off from Stansted diverted to collect prime minister and wife

A government-chartered plane taking Andy Burnham to a Commonwealth summit in the Caribbean made a stop-off in Manchester to collect him, Downing Street has said.

The decision, which will have been more financially and environmentally costly than if the prime minister had travelled to London, leaves him open to accusations of hypocrisy after Labour repeatedly criticised Rishi Sunak for his use of private planes and helicopters for domestic travel when he was the prime minister.

The plane, which the government leases for prime ministerial travel, left Stansted airport outside London at about 6am on Monday en route to Antigua and Barbuda, where the Commonwealth heads of government summit begins on Tuesday.

It carried officials and a handful of pool media reporters, but not Burnham. He and his wife were picked up at Manchester about 30 minutes later. The plane stayed on the ground for an hour before setting off via Canada for a refuelling stop.

Asked why the travel logistics had worked this way, and how much it had cost to add an extra leg to the trip, Burnham’s official spokesperson said: “Decisions related to travel are made on security and operational grounds, neither of which we comment on. We are transparent about travel costs. They will be published in the usual way.”

Burnham had been in Scotland on Friday, before going to Manchester to work from No 10 North that evening, the spokesperson said. Burnham, whose family home is in Greater Manchester, routinely works in the city on Fridays and spends the weekend there.

Asked if this represented value for money, the spokesperson said: “I’ve just set out our position, and I’ll just refer you back to that.” Asked if Burnham simply did not want the effort of returning to London, he replied: “I don’t accept that.”

Prime ministerial flights usually leave from Stansted, where there is a section of the airport for private flights that allows for extra security.

As prime minister, Sunak regularly used helicopters to travel to events in places for which rail travel would have been almost as quick, including Southampton, Dover, the West Midlands and Essex.

When Labour took office it cancelled the £40m helicopter contract used for the travel as part of what Keir Starmer’s government said was an effort to undo “14 years of rot” under the Conservatives.

Labour also questioned why Sunak used an RAF jet to fly to Scotland when scheduled flights were available, given the ministerial code says private planes should only be used when there is no alternative.

The shadow Cabinet Office minister, Mike Wood, said on Monday: “Labour promised a crackdown on private jet use. Yet when it comes to Air Miles Andy, it seems to be one rule for him and another for everyone else.”