Sir Lindsay Hoyle broke his silence yesterday to defend his lavish travel expenses – then backed the right for newspapers to hold politicians to account.
The Commons Speaker justified the record bill he has racked up by insisting part of his job is to be an ‘ambassador’ both ‘at home and abroad’.
It is the first time Sir Lindsay has spoken about the issue since a string of revelations in the Daily Mail, which are said to have personally stung the Speaker.
Earlier this month we revealed how he splurged more than £250,000 in little over two years on 19 foreign jaunts.
He racked up a bill of more than £180,000 on first and business class plane tickets alone because he refuses to fly economy, with thousands more spent on chauffeur-driven cars, stays at luxury five-star resorts and dining out in top restaurants.
Speaking at the Society of Editors’ Media Freedom Conference in London yesterday, he referred to the Daily Mail reports, but said: ‘Part of my job is to act as an ambassador for the House of Commons, both at home and abroad.’
He insisted that speakers have for many decades ‘represented the House on the international stage’.
Handout photo of Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the House of Commons, giving the keynote address at the Society Of Editors Media Freedom Conference 2025, in central London. Issue date: Tuesday March 25, 2025
Sir Lindsay Hoyle broke his silence yesterday to defend his lavish travel expenses
Taxpayers paid Hoyle’s bill at The St Regis hotel in Qatar – totalling more than £800
Hoyle also stayed at Chateau Laurier in Canada’s capital Ottawa, where his room cost £893 per night
He said that in August 1944, former speaker Douglas Clifton Brown travelled to Normandy to visit the British Forces and that Betty Boothroyd ‘spent a good deal of the parliamentary recesses’ travelling to give speeches abroad.
However, critics have said the extent of his globe-trotting is ‘excessive’ and that his job is largely to ‘sit in a chair and keep quiet’ while chairing Commons debates.
As Speaker and MP for Chorley in Lancashire, Sir Lindsay receives a pay package of more than £160,000 as well as a grace-and-favour flat in Parliament.
The number of staff that Sir Lindsay takes on jaunts abroad has also been questioned, after four travelled with him to the G7 Speakers’ Conference in Verona, Italy, last year.
In his speech yesterday, Sir Lindsay also praised the role of the media in holding politicians to account.
‘Every day, your reporters try to tease out the truth, [to]ensure politicians, such as me, are doing the right thing by our constituents and Parliament.
‘Even if we politicians are sometimes at the sharp end of it, I will forever defend your right to free speech and to do what you do, safely and without interference.’
