Sir Lindsay Hoyle was on Sunday night accused of trying to dodge scrutiny over his travel expenses after quietly changing the rules around how often he publishes them.
The Commons Speaker had been publicly revealing basic details of his taxpayer-funded expenses and hospitality and gifts received every month.
But sources told the Mail that changes to his ‘transparency’ register are underway which will see ‘the frequency changing to quarterly’.
It means Sir Lindsay, dubbed ‘long-haul Hoyle’ after splashing more than £320,000 of taxpayers’ cash on foreign jaunts, will only face questions about his expenses four times a year rather than 12.
By contrast, the Commons’ 649 other MPs must update their register of interests and publish them every month.
The move, branded ‘cowardly’ by critics, also means Sir Lindsay has failed to make any details public of his travel expenses and gifts and hospitality received since August last year.
Former Tory Cabinet Minister David Jones said: ‘The Speaker occupies a unique and highly respected constitutional position, and I am sure Sir Lindsay will want to do the right thing.
‘Precisely because the Speaker is the guardian of standards in the Commons, transparency around expenses and hospitality should be at least as rigorous as that required of other MPs.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle has racked up a bill of more than £320,000 on ‘non-regular’ travel trips at taxpayers’ expense, mostly over the last three years
The hotels and resorts Sir Lindsay has stayed in were up to £900 a night. His room at the Westin Grand in the Cayman Islands (pictured) for one trip was £679 a night
Sir Lindsay went to Borneo last year to hold meetings with local officials there as part of a trip to the Malaysian Parliament
‘At this time above all others, when public trust in politics is very fragile, openness matters as much as the rules themselves.’
William Yarwood, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance campaign group, said: ‘The Speaker will look like a bit of a coward if these changes are brought in and continued.
‘Taxpayers deserve transparency from politicians, yet the Speaker is setting a terrible example to other MPs that it’s acceptable to try and hide from public scrutiny.
‘The Speaker should commit to continuing with the monthly releases.’
It comes after the Mail published a raft of revelations last year about how Sir Lindsay racked up huge bills flying first and business class around the globe while staying in luxury five-star hotels.
The Daily Mail obtained details of his trips, beyond what appeared in his official transparency log, via Freedom of Information requests.
He has splurged more than £320,000 on over two dozen ‘non-regular travel’ trips since becoming Speaker in 2019.
The vast bulk of this was spent over the last three years because of the Covid-19 pandemic, when travel was largely grounded.
He has even taken his wife on several business trips along with up to four staff.
Sir Lindsay visited officials at the Malaysian Parliament last year during a trip to Kuala Lumpur, which cost taxpayers more than £24,000
Sir Lindsay spoke of how it was ‘wonderful’ to visit officials at the Malaysian Parliament during his trip there last year
He racked up a bill of more than £200,000 on first and business class plane tickets alone because he won’t fly economy, with tens of thousands more spent on chauffeur-driven cars, stays at luxury five-star resorts and swanky restaurants.
Several of the taxpayer-funded bills appeared to have little to do with his role, including giving speeches at the University of Gibraltar – where he is Chancellor – and the University of California.
In one trip to Malaysia during February half-term last year, he billed taxpayers £23,264 for business class flights and £1,163 for hotels for him and two staff. A further £418 was splashed on ‘meals and subsistence’ and nearly £300 on taxis and other ground transportation.
The trip was to Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur to visit the country’s Parliament and the province of Sarawak on the nearby paradise island of Borneo to hold meetings with local officials there.
Only a trip to the Australian capital Canberra, in January 2023, was more expensive (£40,599).
Sources close to Sir Lindsay said that while the publication of his expenses incurred in his capacity as Speaker will reduce from monthly to quarterly, his expenses incurred as the MP for Chorley will remain monthly.
A spokesman added: ‘Data around meetings and overseas travel will be published quarterly to ensure all invoices and data can be properly finalised and collated.
‘This data will be published in due course.’
Sir Lindsay previously published his expenses quarterly between 2019 and December 2024, but switched this to monthly from January 2025 when changes to the ministerial code – which rules governing his publication of expenses were aligned to – came into force.
But he has decided to return to quarterly publication following the Mail’s string of revelations.