By IANS,
London : Former British prime minister Tony Blair’s security guards are costing taxpayers a whopping 250,000 pounds a year, a media report said Sunday.
The bills for a team of bodyguards, which accompanies Blair on luxury holidays and international trips, are said to be nearly twice those submitted by officers protecting his successor Gordon Brown, who is now out of office, The Mail reported.
The revelations come as the government plans huge cuts in home office expenditure with large numbers of police officers expected to be made redundant.
Wherever Blair travels, a team of up to five personal bodyguards from the Metropolitan Police SO1 Specialist Protection unit go as well.
Blair now spends much of his time abroad, either in his international diplomatic role as a UN Middle East envoy, on his lucrative business dealings or on holidays.
During a two-week break in Borneo last summer, officers ran up a bill of almost 22,000 pounds on their Metropolitan Police Barclaycard, the report said.
This was immediately followed by the Blairs making a week-long visit to Bali, where the cost of the three-man police team’s stay was 6,873 pounds.
As well as the holidays, police officers have accompanied Blair on more than 21 international trips in the first four months of 2010 to destinations including Abu Dhabi, Jordan, Liberia, China, Israel, Singapore, Malaysia and the US.
On New Year’s Eve several members of Blair’s protection team were deployed in Oxford. One officer claimed 984 pounds for five nights in the Malmaison Hotel, while the team also claimed a 213.84 pounds restaurant bill, which they said was so high because of the extra costs of eating out Dec 31.
The startling expenses over Blair’s security will raise new questions about the high cost of providing bodyguards to former politicians and whether wealthy individuals such as Blair should be asked to contribute to the spiralling costs.
The former premier can earn up to 80,000 pounds an hour for a speaking engagement – which means he could clear his protection team’s annual expenses bill with little over three hours’ work, the report said.