After news emerged last week of the UK government’s plan to splurge over £900,000 on refurbishment of an official government jet – so as to “promote Britain after Brexit” – footage of the plane’s livery has surfaced.
Caught through the hangar doors of Cambridge Airport’s storage facility in south-eastern England, the tail has been painted with the Union Jack.
As news of the makeover broke, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was accused of misappropriating taxpayer funds in the midst of a pandemic.
Opposition members slammed his administration for the decision, with Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey stating that the money being poured into the airplane rebrand could be better spent elsewhere.
Sir Ed noted that the Prime Minister could provide 180,000 doses of a potentially life-saving drug – dexamethasone – to those struck with COVID-19 with the £900,000, “but instead he’s painting a flag on a plane”.
However, a spokesman for PM Johnson’s office assured the press that the work represented “value for money”; creating thousands of jobs for the local economy.
On his part, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden defended the rebrand, saying that “we have always spent money on promoting the UK around the world”.
Secretary Dowden said that the work was necessary in order for the plane to “better represent the UK around the world, while also maintaining its military air to air refuelling capacity”.
Doug Green
says:Aircraft typically need repainting every few years anyway. The gov’t could save themselves some grief if this was a scheduled repaint.