Downing Street has defended sending the official UK government plane to Manchester to pick up Andy Burnham, rather than the prime minister travelling to London in advance of the flight.

The Airbus A321neo 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 to cross the Atlantic for the Commonwealth heads of government summit (Chogm).

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.

The official UK government plane, carrying the registration G-GBNI, is often used by British prime ministers and royals for overseas trips.

Flight tracking data shows the jet made a 35 minute flight on Monday morning to Manchester, where it spent an hour and a half on the tarmac, before taking off at 08:00 to head to St John’s.

In response, 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.

Asked why Burnham had not travelled to London instead, his 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.”

Burnham will meet Commonwealth leaders on Tuesday, coming 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 trip 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.

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