Labour challenges Farage over cost of private jet trip to Maldives

Anna Turley questions revised £25,000 figure for failed attempt to reach Chagos Islands on jet linked to billionaire Labour has queried Nigel Farage’s claim that a return trip to the Maldives on a private jet linked to a billionaire donor cost as little as £25,000 as the Reform leader attempted to reach the Chagos Islands. Farage initially recorded his two-day trip to the Maldives as costing £12,500 funded by Thailand-based Reform megadonor Christopher Harborne, before upgrading this to £25,000 in the latest register of interests. The Guardian reported that ownership of the private jet was linked to Harborne, who has given the party more than £12m. However, Anna Turley, the chair of the Labour party, wrote to Farage on Thursday arguing that chartering a private jet of a similar size would cost many times more than the sum declared. “According to publicly available flight logs, this was an 11,000-mile round trip, lasting just over 23 hours, using a model of plane that is currently advertised on multiple private jet websites as costing at least $11,500 (£8,500) per hour to charter,” she said. “Not only did Mr Harborne pay for the costs of this flight, according to your declaration, i