It is quite incredible that Mr Clinton should have chosen to raise concern about the cost of travel for a Parliamentary conference in Belfast when his own seat is nearly three times as expensive as that booked by a Government Minister for the same event. This suggests that his main objective was to generate an artificial controversy in public rather than a genuine expression of concern.

This latest Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) conference is taking place in Belfast. It appears Mr Clinton chose to travel from Gibraltar to London in Club Class and then from London to Belfast. This came to a combined cost of approximately £1,100 return. There is a Minister attending this same conference who instead chose to travel with a low cost carrier to Belfast at a cost of only £384 return.

More than that, it is regrettable that Mr Clinton has chosen to air such an issue in this way, rather than through the proper channels of the Branch of the Association. The Government and Opposition of the day have historically worked together in the CPA to promote the wider interests of Gibraltar and indeed operate as one single Gibraltar team to project the interests of our country as a whole. For decades, Gibraltar’s Parliamentarians have scrupulously avoided embroiling the CPA in any area of local controversy, even where strongly held views have been held behind the scenes.

Mr Clinton must know that this aspect of the international work of all our Parliamentarians is handled directly by the Gibraltar Parliament and not the Government, following practices and procedures which have stood the test of time under successive administrations, including the time of the GSD in Government. In other words, the funding of flights to attend these conferences for the whole financial year is within the budget of the Gibraltar Parliament itself, as is the booking of flights, and this follows the policy of the Association. Therefore the method of booking travel to Commonwealth Parliamentary events has not changed and it remains a matter for the Parliament and the Parliamentarians travelling and not for the Government. The Government nonetheless entirely agrees with Mr Clinton as there is no need whatsoever for CPA travel to be in more expensive cabins, as Opposition members are not required to work on such flights in any manner that can legitimately be described as being in the tax payers financial interests.

In any case, if he felt so strongly about this matter, Mr Clinton should have done one of two things, or both of them. The first is to raise the matter with the Gibraltar Branch in order to change the policy and the second to check and change his own travel arrangements in order to reduce the cost.

ENDS