Long-haul Hoyle’s paradise getaway: Speaker’s tip on Mandelson got here throughout his newest luxurious journey paid for by taxpayers
Lindsay Hoyle was on a jaunt to the British Virgin Islands when he picked up the suggestion that Peter Mandelson might be about to flee Britain.
The Commons Speaker jetted off to the paradise archipelago last week for meetings with officials, adding to his reputation as ‘long-haul Hoyle’.
His stay was heralded by local news outlets the BVI Beacon and BVI News as they reported on Sir Lindsay’s ‘historic’ address to the islands’ House of Assembly to mark ‘last year’s 75th anniversary of the restoration of the Virgin Islands legislature’.
The Speaker, plus two members of staff, headed for the Caribbean sunshine as parliament was in recess during the half-term break.
Sources in Tortola, where he met BVI premier Dr Natalio Wheatley and UK governor Daniel Pruce, said he stayed at the luxury four-star Wyndham Tortola BVI Lambert Beach Resort. Its website boasts of being ‘a beachside oasis’ within a ‘secluded resort with a spa, pool, restaurants’.
It adds: ‘Situated on one of the Caribbean’s most beautiful beaches, our contemporary 14.4-acre property features one of the biggest freshwater pools in the British Virgin Islands with a convenient swim-up bar and cabanas.’
Rooms start from around £300 a night, according to its website.
It is understood Sir Lindsay was originally booked into the nearby four-star Sugar Mill Hotel, but that this was changed at the eleventh-hour.
As well as meeting Dr Wheatley and Mr Pruce, who hosted a special reception in his honour, Sir Lindsay toured the local Road Town Police Station and Royal Virgin Islands Police Marine Base.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle in the Virgin Islands last week for the first address to the House of Assembly by a speaker of the British House of Commons
Wyndham Tortola on Lambert Beach, British Virgin Islands, where Sir Lindsay Hoyle stayed
In his business-like suit, despite the 27C heat, he cut the red ribbon to open the second floor of the Old Government House Museum.
The cost of last week’s trip, which lasted at least four days, is unknown, and on Wednesday night, his office refused to give details as to who was picking up the bill. UK taxpayers have covered most of the cost for the majority of his numerous previous trips abroad.
A spokesman for the Government of the British Virgin Islands said: ‘Sir Lindsay Hoyle MP, Speaker of the House of Commons, made an official visit to the Virgin Islands last week at the invitation of the Government of the Virgin Islands that highlighted the Territory’s 75 years of advances in democratic governance and parliamentary democracy.
‘We have noted Sir Lindsay’s statement in the House of Commons on 25 February and we have no further comment to make.’
Sir Lindsay’s office declined to comment. But the trip sparked renewed questions about the Speaker’s travel.
He was branded ‘long-haul Hoyle’ following a string of revelations by this newspaper, including the splurging of more than £320,000 of taxpayers’ cash on foreign jaunts up until last summer since becoming Speaker in 2019.
The vast bulk of this was spent over the last three years, because travel was largely grounded during the Covid-19 pandemic.
He racked up a bill of more than £200,000 on first and business class plane tickets over three years alone, with tens of thousands more spent on chauffeur-driven cars, stays at luxury five-star resorts and swanky restaurants.
Several of the taxpayer-funded trips appear to have little to do with his Parliamentary role, including giving speeches at the University of Gibraltar – where he is Chancellor – and the University of California.
During a previous Caribbean tour in March 2023, Sir Lindsay splurged nearly £5,500 chartering private planes to hop between the islands of St Maarten, Montserrat, Anguilla and Antigua, which are British Overseas Territories.
In 2024, he spent £22,000 for a five-day trip to meet his counterpart in the Cayman Islands, staying at the Westin Grand, where his room was billed at £679 per night.
Critics have said that the extent of his globe-trotting and the bills racked up have been ‘excessive’ and that several appeared to be ‘jollies’ at taxpayers’ expense.
As revealed by the Mail last week, Sir Lindsay has failed to publish details of such travel since August last year after quietly changing the rules to publishing them every quarter rather than monthly.
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘It is absolutely unacceptable that taxpayers are being kept in the dark on the issue of the Speaker’s expenses. Sir Lindsay Hoyle rightly holds governments to account on transparency and accountability, yet refuses to practice what he preaches.’
