Loading ...A group of Members of Parliament and other parliamentary staff cost taxpayers £84,000 for a trip to the United States to investigate the phenomenon of fake news, spending a remarkable 11,506,749 per-cent more on the jolly than the total spent by the alleged Kremlin “troll farm” on Facebook adverts during the Brexit referendum campaign.
Led by MP Damian Collins, members of the Parliamentary Digital Select Committee including ten further members of parliament, the committee clerk, a senior committee specialist, and a media officer flew to the United States in February, costing the taxpayer a whopping £84,000.
Included in that spend was £37,538 for business class flights, £6,500 on minibuses, £1,250 on security, and £140 on gifts. The party stayed at £192-a-night hotels in New York and Washington D.C., and spent £14,655 to broadcast an evidence session from George Washington University, according to a Freedom of Information release acquired by POLITICO.