Opinion: We'll never be able to escape Starmer's socialist misery

By RICHARD LITTLEJOHN

Published: | Updated:

Fancy a winter break abroad, a brief respite from the socialist misery at home? Already looking forward to next summer’s sunshine getaway? Better book now, then, just to be on the safe side. The latest horror story emerging from Treasury and Labour ‘sources’ is that Rachel From Complaints is planning yet another smash and grab raid on air travel. We’ve already got the highest airline taxes in the world by some distance. In her last Budget, Reeves hiked existing usurious rates of Air Passenger Duty (APD), which kick in next April.

Fancy a winter break abroad, a brief respite from the socialist misery at home? Already looking forward to next summer’s sunshine getaway? Better book now, then, just to be on the safe side. The latest horror story emerging from Treasury and Labour ‘sources’ is that Rachel From Complaints is planning yet another smash and grab raid on air travel. We’ve already got the highest airline taxes in the world by some distance. In her last Budget, Reeves hiked existing usurious rates of Air Passenger Duty (APD), which kick in next April.

Not that it will stop her coming back for more as she casts around in desperation for any, however punitive, measures to fill her self-inflicted £50billion black hole. Travel company bosses, including the heads of TUI and Jet2, warned this week that some families will be priced out of package holidays altogether if taxes go up again. Businesses are already reeling from the increases in National Insurance and the minimum wage, which are costing Jet2 alone an extra £25million a year. How much more pain can passengers bear? As I’ve said before, this column does words not numbers – which I leave to my expert colleagues on Money Mail. But what I do know is that taxes now comprise anything up to a third of the price on long-haul business class flights and two-thirds on a domestic or European trip.

Not that it will stop her coming back for more as she casts around in desperation for any, however punitive, measures to fill her self-inflicted £50billion black hole. Travel company bosses, including the heads of TUI and Jet2, warned this week that some families will be priced out of package holidays altogether if taxes go up again. Businesses are already reeling from the increases in National Insurance and the minimum wage, which are costing Jet2 alone an extra £25million a year. How much more pain can passengers bear? As I’ve said before, this column does words not numbers – which I leave to my expert colleagues on Money Mail. But what I do know is that taxes now comprise anything up to a third of the price on long-haul business class flights and two-thirds on a domestic or European trip.

The justification for this daylight robbery is the demented pursuit of Net Zero - even though UK-originated air travel is responsible for just 2.4 per cent of global plane emissions. Yet while struggling families are working out whether they can still afford to take the kids to Disney World in Florida or a fortnight at a budget hotel on the Costa Packet, two men who won’t have to worry about the cost of air travel are the Prime Minister and the Mayor of London, Genghis Khan. They may flaunt their planet-saving credentials and heap ever-increasing eco taxes on ‘ordinary people’, but when it comes to jetting round the world at taxpayers’ expense, the sky’s the limit.

The justification for this daylight robbery is the demented pursuit of Net Zero - even though UK-originated air travel is responsible for just 2.4 per cent of global plane emissions. Yet while struggling families are working out whether they can still afford to take the kids to Disney World in Florida or a fortnight at a budget hotel on the Costa Packet, two men who won’t have to worry about the cost of air travel are the Prime Minister and the Mayor of London, Genghis Khan. They may flaunt their planet-saving credentials and heap ever-increasing eco taxes on ‘ordinary people’, but when it comes to jetting round the world at taxpayers’ expense, the sky’s the limit.

The hypocrisy is quite breathtaking. This week we learned that Mayor Khan’s Visit London tourist board will not be welcoming visitors with a sizeable carbon footprint. They won’t be advertising in long-haul markets such as Idaho, in the US, in order to make London a ‘sustainable global destination’. Not that having a footprint the size of a Yeti has prevented Genghis from jetting around the world. Analysis of his international travel since he came to office shows that he has churned out 43.6 tons of carbon, enough to punch a ‘black hole’ in the ozone layer, so to speak.

The hypocrisy is quite breathtaking. This week we learned that Mayor Khan’s Visit London tourist board will not be welcoming visitors with a sizeable carbon footprint. They won’t be advertising in long-haul markets such as Idaho, in the US, in order to make London a ‘sustainable global destination’. Not that having a footprint the size of a Yeti has prevented Genghis from jetting around the world. Analysis of his international travel since he came to office shows that he has churned out 43.6 tons of carbon, enough to punch a ‘black hole’ in the ozone layer, so to speak.

In layman’s terms, that’s a hell of a lot – much of it produced on trips to climate change conferences, after being chauffeured to the airport in his gas-guzzling official Range Rover. He’s racked up enough air miles to fly to the Moon and back. Fly me to the moon... At home in London, though, Genghis poses as a ‘clean air’ zealot, using it as an excuse to milk motorists through congestion charges and low emission zones – both of which only serve to create increased congestion and exhaust emissions. Now we discover that his hated ULEZ extension – raking in £3.5million a week – has had no effect at all in cutting pollution.

In layman’s terms, that’s a hell of a lot – much of it produced on trips to climate change conferences, after being chauffeured to the airport in his gas-guzzling official Range Rover. He’s racked up enough air miles to fly to the Moon and back. Fly me to the moon... At home in London, though, Genghis poses as a ‘clean air’ zealot, using it as an excuse to milk motorists through congestion charges and low emission zones – both of which only serve to create increased congestion and exhaust emissions. Now we discover that his hated ULEZ extension – raking in £3.5million a week – has had no effect at all in cutting pollution.

So that’s what they mean by ‘Net Zero’. Turns out his jet-setting is more damaging to the planet than all the cars in Outer London. The only serious contender to Genghis when it comes to the mass slaughter of polar bears is the Prime Minister himself. If Kemi Badenoch really wanted to embarrass Surkeir at PMQs she could start by asking him how much time he expects to spend in the UK over the coming year.

So that’s what they mean by ‘Net Zero’. Turns out his jet-setting is more damaging to the planet than all the cars in Outer London. The only serious contender to Genghis when it comes to the mass slaughter of polar bears is the Prime Minister himself. If Kemi Badenoch really wanted to embarrass Surkeir at PMQs she could start by asking him how much time he expects to spend in the UK over the coming year.

This week we learned that Never Here Keir is to fly 9,000 miles to Brazil and back to attend – yep, you guessed it – a climate change summit. Even though he’s only been in office for 16 months, this will be his 40th foreign trip. His impressive itinerary includes five trips to both the US and France, three to Germany, as well Samoa, Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia, Canada, India, the UAE and Egypt. When he gets back from Brazil, he’s packing his swimming trunks before heading off again to a G20 gathering in Johannesburg.

This week we learned that Never Here Keir is to fly 9,000 miles to Brazil and back to attend – yep, you guessed it – a climate change summit. Even though he’s only been in office for 16 months, this will be his 40th foreign trip. His impressive itinerary includes five trips to both the US and France, three to Germany, as well Samoa, Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia, Canada, India, the UAE and Egypt. When he gets back from Brazil, he’s packing his swimming trunks before heading off again to a G20 gathering in Johannesburg.

There’s been nothing like it since Two Jags flew first-class to China to deliver a lecture on global warming in his capacity as UN ‘rapporteur’ on climate change. At this rate Surkeir will have been round the world more times than Michael Palin. Hilariously, the excuse for this latest jolly is that he has to attend the climate change summit in Brazil to stop Labour haemorrhaging votes to the Greens. It gets better. In order to save the planet, the Brazilian government has bulldozed tens of thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest to build a motorway in preparation for the conference. You couldn’t, etc.

There’s been nothing like it since Two Jags flew first-class to China to deliver a lecture on global warming in his capacity as UN ‘rapporteur’ on climate change. At this rate Surkeir will have been round the world more times than Michael Palin. Hilariously, the excuse for this latest jolly is that he has to attend the climate change summit in Brazil to stop Labour haemorrhaging votes to the Greens. It gets better. In order to save the planet, the Brazilian government has bulldozed tens of thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest to build a motorway in preparation for the conference. You couldn’t, etc.

The summit is taking place 4,600 miles from London in Belem, known as the ‘Gateway To The Amazon’. Next time he visits the UK, between overseas jaunts, perhaps Surkeir would condescend to visit Balham, Gateway To The South. While the PM is swanning round the world, the hard-pressed people of Balham and beyond are trying to work out if they can afford a budget package holiday, once they’ve paid their exorbitant ULEZ charges and Rachel from Complaints’ upcoming increases in air passenger duty. That’s if the travel firms haven’t gone bust by then. Still, if you’ve got a few bob left over after the Budget, I hear Brazil is nice this time of year.

The summit is taking place 4,600 miles from London in Belem, known as the ‘Gateway To The Amazon’. Next time he visits the UK, between overseas jaunts, perhaps Surkeir would condescend to visit Balham, Gateway To The South. While the PM is swanning round the world, the hard-pressed people of Balham and beyond are trying to work out if they can afford a budget package holiday, once they’ve paid their exorbitant ULEZ charges and Rachel from Complaints’ upcoming increases in air passenger duty. That’s if the travel firms haven’t gone bust by then. Still, if you’ve got a few bob left over after the Budget, I hear Brazil is nice this time of year.

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