No 10 defends sending government plane to Manchester to collect Andy Burnham

Downing Street has defended sending the official UK government plane to Manchester to collect Andy Burnham, rather than the prime minister travelling to London in advance of the flight. The Airbus A321neo, carrying the registration G-GBNI, departed London Stansted Airport for Saint John's, the capital of Antigua and Barbuda, at about 06:00 on Monday without the prime minister on board. Half an hour later it landed in Manchester to collect Burnham, before taking off again at 08:00 to cross the Atlantic for the Commonwealth heads of government summit (Chogm). Flight tracking data shows the jet, which is often used by British prime ministers and royals for overseas trips, spent an hour and a half on the tarmac in Manchester. The trip sparked a backlash on social media, with some questioning the value for money, but Number 10 said security, cost and "operational requirements" were all factored in. Asked why Burnham had not travelled to London instead, the prime minister's official spokesperson told reporters: "The prime minister's travel arrangements reflect where he was carrying out official government business at the end of last week. As you know, he spent the day in Scotland on Friday; returned to Manchester to work from Number 10 North on Friday evening." The response did not satisfy Conservative critics. Tory MP and shadow cabinet minister Neil O'Brien accused Labour of managing to "waste taxpayers' money and jet fuel so they can posture". "You have to pay through the nose for energy and fuel to pursue their Net Zero obsession... But when it's them, the rules are different," he added. Burnham will meet Commonwealth leaders on Tuesday, at the end of the King's Caribbean tour, with the prime minister saying he is "open" to the possibility of the UK formally apologising for its role in slavery. It is unclear how much the London to Manchester leg cost, or whether there is a precedent for it, as the Cabinet Office's transparency data for the plane only lists overseas trips. None of Burnham's trips are listed yet, as the data is published quarterly. The latest data for April to June 2026 shows then-Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer made four round trips on the jet, including a £121,000 trip to Armenia with 21 officials for the European Political Community Summit. A trip from the UK to Paris in April cost £39,000. The precise cost of each flight can depend on how many officials were with the prime minister, fuel costs and other factors such as landing fees. It is also unclear whether transporting the prime minister, his security detail and officials by train or road transport from Manchester to Stansted would have been much cheaper. A previous version of the UK government official plane, an RAF Voyager, was given a £900,000 repaint job in 2020 before being replaced with a different plane.