The government’s climate change minister has defended Boris Johnson’s private plane trip from London to Cornwall for this week’s G7 summit.
The prime minister came under fire after a photo was posted on his Twitter feed of him stepping off a jet after a flight from the capital to Newquay, as world leaders gathered to discuss the climate crisis.
On a visit to Newcastle on Friday morning, Tory peer Martin Callanan claimed that the decision would not send the wrong message about the government’s green credential.
The Gateshead-born peer said: “Not at all. The Prime Minister is very busy, he was doing Prime Minister’s Questions, he has to host the American president and other world leaders.
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“His people make decisions about security, his best mode of transport depending on the circumstances at the time. I have seen him on the train before, the car, on a plane. At the end of the day, you have to allow his team to make the best decisions about how he travels.”
Newcastle City Council’s Labour leader, Nick Forbes, said he was “baffled” that the PM had flown to Cornwall rather than taking the train.
He added: “The G7 summit is our once in a decade chance to promote the UK, post-Brexit, as a place of international significance and global responsibility.
Source: Chronicle Live