Jo Swinson has been branded a ‘hypocrite’ for threatening to slap new taxes on frequent fliers but preferring the plane over the train herself.
An analysis of the leader’s expenses from summer 2017 until January this year showed she claimed for 77 flights to get the 400 miles to and from her Scottish constituency to at a total cost of £9,435.Ms Swinson claimed for only 23 rail journeys in the same period at a cost of £2,766.
Last night Tory parliamentary candidate David Morris said: ‘Jo Swinson poses as some goody-two-shoes who’s saving the planet but her own record shows she’s a hypocrite on this count.
Under fire: pinbahis The Lib Dem leader has been labelled a ‘hyprocrite’ over plans to tax frequent fliers
‘It is bare-faced cheek to pretend to be a climate change champion but then prefer the plane over the train to get to her constituency when there’s a perfectly good rail service.’
The row erupted after Ms Swinson vowed to impose a new ‘green’ levy on frequent international fliers.
She then followed up the ‘green’ manifesto promise by releasing an Election broadcast which showed her boarding the train in Glasgow to travel down to Westminster.
But an investigation by this newspaper of her Commons expenses for travel between London and her East Dunbartonshire seat near Glasgow showed she flew three times more than she went by train since 2017.
Ms Swinson’s manifesto pledge was made last week, when the Lib Dems unveiled plans to raise more than a billion pounds extra a year in air passenger duty by targeting frequent international travellers.
It vowed to ‘reduce the climate change impact of flying by reforming the taxation of international flights to focus on those who fly the most’.
Not so green: Swinson spent far more on flights than travelling by train but she claimed she did so as rail wasn’t quick enough