GLASGOW’s Lord Provost is under fire for racking up a £13,000 flight bill as the local authority loses 1500 jobs.

Records reveals that Labour's Sadie Docherty flew business class to Malawi on a poverty trip while an aide sat in the cheaper seats.

The local authority also paid for her and her husband to attend Burns suppers in Germany.

Glasgow city council last week confirmed 1500 jobs would be lost in a bid to make £130m of savings as a result of UK and Scottish Government cuts.

The cash-strapped organisation will axe funding for 100 police officers, double the cost of breakfast clubs and cut the spending to voluntary groups.

However, despite Glasgow enduring waves of job losses over recent years, new figures reveal the extent of the Lord Provost’s globetrotting since she took up the post in 2012.

The civic leader ordinarily travels economy class – a move designed to keep costs down – but she has permission to upgrade to business class on long hauls.

In 2014, Docherty led a delegation to Malawi to examine how the city’s aid to the poverty-stricken nation was being used.

The figures reveal her business flight for the trip cost the taxpayer £4,612 at a time when jobs had been lost in the city chambers.

One member of staff accompanied the socialist politician, but this individual sat in standard class.

The Sunday Herald last week sourced an economy class return to Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital city, for less than £700.

In 2015, Docherty took a £3,015 business class flight to New York as part of the Scotland Week celebrations.

The Jet2.com website offered a flight to the Big Apple in the coming months for £497.70.

In 2013, Docherty’s “civic visit” to Rostov-on-Don in Russia – a city twinned with Glasgow – cost the public purse £3,925 for a business class flight.

The Tripadvisor website on Friday quoted £506 for a return flight to the same location.

The figures also reveal Docherty’s husband Willie accompanied her on four foreign trips.

The council paid for the couple’s flights to a “Burns supper” and “Scottish cultural showcase” in Nuremberg in 2013.

They also attended a Commonwealth Games meeting in 2014 and attended a war ceremony in Guernsey last year.

In January this year, weeks before confirmation of the job loss plan, the Dochertys went back to Nuremberg for another Burns supper.

The trip cost the taxpayer nearly £800 in economy class flights.

Docherty's husband used to be managing director of council spin-off firm City Building before reportedly getting a six-figure exit package. He now holds a senior position at repairs firm Mears Scotland.

A spokesperson for the SNP group on Glasgow council said: "Whilst the people of Glasgow face austerity it's abundantly clear the Lord Provost doesn't seem to think this applies to her. Unfortunately this is yet another example of Glasgow Labour's champagne socialism that Glaswegians have faced for too long now."

A council spokeswoman said: “The current Lord Provost is the least travelled of recent Lord Provosts. The trips as civic head of Glasgow are to represent the city at high-profile events including Scotland Week in New York, London for the Commonwealth Games and at the invitation of Her Majesty the Queen’s to celebrate her birthday, as well as a trip to Guernsey as part of First World War centenary commemorations.

“The council has been twinned with Nuremberg since 1985. This was the city’s first twinning agreement. The Lord Provost’s attendance at the city’s Burns Supper is a longstanding invitation from the people of Nuremberg. Next year the city will celebrate its 25th Burns Supper. Incidentally, last week the Lord Provost welcomed Mayor Gsell, and a delegation, from Nuremberg to the City Chambers.”