Starmer’s government increasing spending on foreign trips, figures show
Keir Starmer’s government is spending an increasing amount on foreign trips, with almost 40 visits abroad adding up to more than £4m since he took office, the latest transparency figures have showed,The prime minister had his most costly quarter for foreign travel in the last three months of 2025, with eight trips adding up to £1,2m,The most expensive was his three-day visit to the Cop climate conference in Brazil, along with 29 officials, costing £413,000,The trade trip to India with 45 staff on a commercial flight cost £341,000, while the G20 in Johannesburg along with 30 staff on an RAF plane came in at £367,000.
Starmer’s 39 trips abroad have earned him criticism from the Tories, who have called him “never here Keir”, while some of the prime minister’s own aides having tried to get him to spend more time in the UK and less on international diplomacy and attending summits.However, Tony Blair, David Cameron and Theresa May made as many, if not more, trips abroad in their first two years in office.Blair’s annual travel spending was about £2m for 22 overseas visits in 2006.Rishi Sunak, who was less keen on foreign visits, made only about 22 trips and delegated much of his diplomacy to Cameron, who was appointed as his foreign secretary, while Boris Johnson’s premiership was marked by the international travel bans of the Covid era.Sunak’s trips appear to have been less costly than Starmer’s, with the G20 summit to Indonesia coming in at £204,925, the Cop conference in Egypt costing £112,000 and another in Dubai costing £119,000.
Downing Street sources said Starmer’s travel was vital and he was “banging the drum” for the UK and its business interests,A government spokesperson said: “All PM travel is done with consideration to security requirements and value for taxpayers, and is central to rebuilding Britain’s global influence and keeping people safe through stronger alliances,“These trips have helped secure billions in investment for the UK and tens of thousands of jobs, while strengthening our security, protecting British interests overseas and delivering real benefits for people at home,”The figures emerged in the latest transparency publication released by the government,This showed hospitality given to ministers and their aides, with the culture team taking free tickets to the Brits, Baftas and Winter Olympics – all of which are linked to their brief.
Starmer declared only a Munich Security Conference dinner and a reception at the North East Chamber of Commerce.The transparency release also revealed the salaries of senior civil servants, with some of the highest earners including the chief executive of HS2 getting £660,000 a year, two Network Rail executives earning more than £550,000 and the chief executive of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority earning £445,000.
Divide between Silicon Valley and ordinary people grows ever larger
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery. This week in tech, we discuss a moment of divergence between Silicon Valley and everyday people; deep cuts at Meta to maximize spending on AI; writers caught using AI; and the frightening, fiery crashes of the Tesla Cybertruck.Nvidia hosted a conference last week where it emphasized AI agents – semi-autonomous chatbots that can perform digital tasks for you – as the next frontier in tech. The company announced a toolkit for agents, including NemoClaw, an AI agent software suite for businesses
Amount of AI-generated child sexual abuse material found online surged in 2025
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MPs urge UK government to halt contract giving Palantir FCA data access
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AI boom risks widening wealth divide, says BlackRock’s Larry Fink
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Leonid Radvinsky, owner of OnlyFans, dies aged 43
Leonid Radvinsky, the owner of OnlyFans, has died of cancer at the age of 43, the company announced on Monday.“We are deeply saddened to announce the death of Leo Radvinsky. Leo passed away peacefully after a long battle with cancer,” said a spokesperson for the company, best known for subscriptions to pornographic content creators. “His family have requested privacy at this difficult time.”Radvinsky, a Ukrainian-American billionaire with a net worth of about $3
‘Kids say they take a quick look at TikTok’: a new kind of distracted driving is on the rise
As watching videos, using touchscreens, and even livestreaming behind the wheel become more common, experts warn of increased risk of crashes Jackie was on her way to a doctor’s appointment last fall when she realized her Uber driver’s eyes were not fully on the road. “He had a video playing on his phone and was intermittently looking at it,” she said. Jackie, who is 32 and lives in New Jersey, could not tell exactly what the driver was watching, but she remembers seeing shots of people talking – she guessed it was a video podcast. “I was definitely feeling a lot of dread and distress.”As they continued on their 40-minute drive down the New Jersey Turnpike – a hectic highway that is not easy driving – Jackie considered saying something
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