Ministry of Defence blows £180million on luxury hotels, cars… and £3,000 for a Sky Sports subscription

MoD figures reveal it spent £180million on hotels and cars

Andrey Manley claimed £5,500 for stays at a four star spa

Bernard Gray racked up a bill of £23,00 staying in London and Bristol

The hotels budget has increased despite armed forces cuts

The MoD has spent £180million on hotels and car hire for top civil servants and officers, andeven signed off on £3,000 for a Sky Sport subscription.

Officials spent £110million on hotels between 2009 and 2013, a bill which went up by £3million in three years, and a further £69million on cars.

The total included a £5,500 bill for Andrew Manley, the chief executive of the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, for nearly 50 nights at the luxury New Hall Hotel and Spa in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands.

Two of the biggest claimants were Andrew Manley (left) who charged £5,500 for 47 nights at the four star New Hall Hotel and Spa, and Bernard Gray (right) who racked up a £23,000 bill for 106 stays in Bristol and London



Mr Manley, who is paid around £200,000 a year, spent 47 nights at the £155-a-night, four star spa, despite it being less than two miles from DIO headquarters which the MoD said he visited from his London office.



The Sky Sports contract was bought for one small unit in Northwood, Hertfordshire, so that it could monitor 'global 24-hour news feeds'.

According to The Sunday People another high-spender was Bernard Gray, the MoD's Chief of Defence Material, whose first task when he was appointed in 2010 was to reduce the equipment budget.



Mr Gray claimed £23,000 on 106 stays in London and Bristol, despite his house being less than a 60 miles drive from both, and him being allocated a car and driver.

The New Hall Hotel, where Mr Manley stayed, costs £155-a-night and is situated less than two miles from his department's HQ

The hotels budget has increased by £3million in three years despite the armed forces facing harsh budget cuts

TaxPayers Alliance chief, Matthew Sinclair, said: 'The MoD cannot afford to squander huge sums on luxury hotels while rank and file soldiers are being given their P45s.



'Taxpayers expect the defence budget to spent on protecting the realm, not stays at swanky hotels across the world.'

The armed forces are currently facing the biggest cuts since the end of the Second World War, with troop numbers being reduced, pay being cut, and tanks, jets and warships being scrapped.

Around 20,000 civil servants have also lost their jobs since 2011.

A spokesman for the MoD said that £53million of savings had been made in the department last year, and that the cars budget had been reduced by 20 per cent.

The revelations came after Labour MP Chris Evans tabled a parliamentary question on the issue of expenses.











