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£11m spent on foreign trips

The most expensive trip by a minister was made by Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who travelled with 14 officials to the Far East in 1997 at a cost of £169,186.

The visit to Jakarta, Manila, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore was one of 85 trips he has taken since May 1997 - a total which makes him the most-travelled minister.

Mr Blair has taken 48 trips, one of which was a three-day visit to South Africa in January this year at a cost of £149,919.

Redwood attack

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has been criticised after the figures, which include details of all ministerial trips costing more than £500, revealed that the tax payer paid £90,500 for him to represent the government at Mother Teresa's funeral.

The Independent newspaper reported that John Redwood, who was appointed as Mr Prescott's opposite number in the Shadow Cabinet this week, said he would demand an explanation of why the trip had cost so much.

Mr Prescott was accompanied to the funeral in Calcutta in September 1997 by the Duchess of Kent.

Mr Redwood is quoted as saying: "If the whole of that £90,000 was spent on John Prescott's personal travel arrangements, it was a right royal rip-off of the tax payer.

"I'm all for the deputy prime minister travelling around, but there must be some proportion in the style of travel."

Mr Prescott's controversial trip to India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, where he went diving off coral reefs in March this year, cost £6,925.

Travelling for less

Some of the less expensive trips included an overnight visit to Toulouse by Health Secretary Frank Dobson to watch England play Romania in the football World Cup in June last year, at a cost of £896.

The figures are reported to highlight large disparities between the lifestyles of ministers.

Jack Cunningham, as agriculture minister and chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, spent £77,000 on travel. His two visits to the agriculture council in Luxembourg cost more than £28,000, in including bills for 13 officials.

But Nick Brown, who took over as agriculture minister, spent just £537 on two separate occasions for visits to the next two agriculture councils.

Costs incurred by Chancellor Gordon Brown were also lower. Visits to Brussels, Luxembourg and Amsterdam have cost between £518 and £782, including travel fares and hotel bills.

The government has also published figures claiming that the Conservatives spent even more money than Labour on ministerial visits - £7.8m during their last year in power.

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