Rishi Sunak angrily defends his use of RAF jets and helicopters to fly to UK visits in heated...
angrily defended his use of RAF jets and private helicopters to fly around the country today in a bust-up with a BBC presenter. The Prime Minister slapped down Martin Geissler after he mentioned his use of air travel ahead of a trip to Scotland to as well as . Mr Sunak has been criticised previously for his use of RAF planes and private helicopters to travel around the UK on official and party political business when there are cheaper and less polluting alternatives. However a train journey from London King's Cross to Aberdeen takes around seven hours and an irritated Mr Sunak pointed out that he has quite a busy job He told the BBC Scotland presenter: ctually that question brings to light a great debate here, if you or others think that the answer to climate change is getting people to ban everything that they are doing, to stop people going on holiday, I mean, I think that's the absolutely the wrong approach.' Asked if Mr Sunak appeared 'testy' during the radio interview, the PM's press secretary later said: 'I think that was probably because the interview started off with (the BBC) complaining they only had five minutes. 'I would point out the PM has done Good Morning Scotland twice since he became PM and he is the first PM to do so since David Cameron.' Mr Sunak has faced criticism of his use of air travel within the UK, although the criticism has mainly been aimed at far shorter journeys. In May he flew 70 miles from London to Southampton instead of driving or using the train. He was previously accused of behaving like an 'A-list celebrity' after he used an RAF jet to fly 250 miles to northern England to promote 'levelling up' funding in January. That was the third time he had used an RAF aircraft in ten days for trips within Britain. In March, it was revealed the PM had spent more than 500,000 of taxpayers' cash on private jets to take him on foreign trips totalling eight days. Mr as he vowed to ramp up exploitation of North Sea oil and gas reserves. The Prime Minister vowed to approve hundreds of new licences to drill for off the UK coast as he seeks to hit Labour over the . Sir has suggested Labour would ban all new applications to drill in the North Sea if it wins the next election but would create jobs through a massive push towards green technology and jobs. He has been mired in a row over donations received from Dale Vince, the green power tycoon who is also a backer of Just Stop Oil. The Prime Minister told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland that new licences were vital to avoid the UK being beholden to 'dictators' such as Vladimir Putin through energy imports. However, the PM refused to also ease the planned 2030 ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars.