By Toby Young
Andy Burnham’s ‘climate tsar’ Rachel Kyte has racked up 250,000 air miles on taxpayer-funded flights – including business-class trips to Rio de Janeiro, Seoul and Barbados – at a cost of £107,000 in under two years. Conservative MP Greg Smith has demanded Burnham sack her and abolish the £130,000-a-year role entirely. The the Mail has the story:
Andy Burnham is under mounting pressure to sack his ‘climate tsar’ after she racked up more than enough ‘air miles’ to get to the Moon.
The the Mail can reveal Rachel Kyte has clocked up 250,000 miles worth of official flights in less than two years in the job – and that includes business-class trips to glamorous locations such as Rio de Janeiro, Seoul and Barbados.
On Saturday, the Prime Minister faced calls to cut the climate tsar’s air mileage or get rid of her.
Conservative MP Greg Smith told The the Mail: “Rachel Kyte’s jet-setting lifestyle is a slap in the face to taxpayers.
“The fact this so-called ‘climate tsar’ regularly does 10,000-mile round trips – often in business-class – to eco conferences is outrageous. If she had any shame she would resign. If not, Andy Burnham should sack her and abolish the role for good.”
Ms Kyte, a one-time fan of environmental group Extinction Rebellion, came under fire in June last year for running up 75,000 air miles since she became the UK’s Special Representative for Climate in September 2024.
However, fresh Freedom of Information requests show that she has now done 250,000 air miles in the job, enough to circumnavigate the globe ten times.
This has come at a total cost to the taxpayer of £107,000, a figure that does not include hotel bills.
She flew to Colombia for the ‘Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels’ conference in April – a 10,000-mile round trip branded “beyond a joke” by her critics.
This came immediately after a £10,000 business-class jaunt to Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo. This year alone, Ms Kyte has already spent more than £31,000 on over 20 flights, the majority in business class.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) considers these expenses “cost-effective” and “in the interests of taxpayers”. But according to climate-protection organisation myclimate.org, Ms Kyte would have burned 100 tons of CO2 on her flights – ten times the average person’s annual emissions.
It would take you 27 years to rack up the equivalent emissions driving a Range Rover.
The £130,000-a-year climate representative role was brought back by Labour after it was abolished by the Tories in 2023.
Ms Kyte, an academic, has previously spoken of air travel’s negative impact on the environment.
In a New Statesman interview in 2021, she admitted that “the carbon footprint wrapped up in my social and professional identity is a source of deep discomfort”.
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