Steve Mnuchin, the US Treasury Secretary, asked to use a government jet for his honeymoon in Europe with his Scottish-born wife, the actress Louise Linton, the Treasury Department confirmed.

The couple married in the summer, at a wedding attended by President Donald Trump, and honeymooned in Edinburgh, France and Italy.

A written request was made by Mr Mnuchin's office for the military plane but ultimately it was not pursued.

According to the US Air Force the cost of the jet would have been around $25,000 an hour.

Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat who sits on the Senate Finance Committee, told ABC News: "You don't need a giant rule book of government requirements to just say yourself 'This is common sense, it's wrong'. That's just slap-your-forehead stuff."

There is already a review of Mr Mnuchin's use of a government jet for a trip to Fort Knox in Kentucky at the time of the solar eclipse. He was accompanied on that trip by Miss Linton.

His office has explained he was tat Fort Knox for tax reform meetings and that Mr Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs banker, was reimbursing the government for his wife's travel costs.

Miss Linton caused controversy when she posted a photograph on social media of herself getting off the plane in Kentucky and listing the designer labels she was wearing including Hermes and Valentino.