Business

Boris Johnson deserves a jet – and a beefed-up Foreign Office

Warren Buffett never spends more than $3.17 on breakfast.

He lives in the same house that he bought in 1958 for $31,500 ($260,000 in todays money) and drives a Cadillac XTS, which retails at around $45,000.

Mark Zuckerberg drives a black Acura TSX, valued around $30,000. And Alice Walton, heiress to the Walmart fortune, drives a 2006 Ford F-150 King Ranch, worth around $40,000.

Read more: Boris Johnson wants his own Brexit plane

The example of multi-billionaires driving nondescript cars came to mind a few weeks ago when Boris Johnson came under fire for suggesting that the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) should have its own jet.

He made this proposal during a five-day trip to South America, which involved taking a myriad of commercial flights to travel to Peru, Argentina, and Chile, with a full entourage of officials and media.

On his way from London to Lima, the foreign secretary was forced to stop off in Madrid to change planes, adding five hours to the journey time, because the only direct flight on offer did not fit their schedule.

His call for an FCO jet was branded a “vanity project” by the anti-Brexit Best for Britain group. And shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry declared: “the sooner this ludicrous waste of taxpayers money is grounded the better – and I dont just mean the jet, I mean Boris Johnson too”.

As founder of the low tax, anti-government waste TaxPayers Alliance campaign group, you might expect me to share this sentiment. When Tony Blair proposed “Blair Force One”, didnt I blast the proposal for a prime ministerial jet?

Nope. You can search the archives. Even under an overspending Labour government which we bitterly opposed, we held back.

I will explain why.

A friend of mine who works in investor relations for a private equity firm recently went to receive his annual bonus. He was presented with two envelopes. The first was his earned bonus. The second required him to promise to upgrade his car from the 15-year-old slightly battered Ford Fiesta, which sat alongside the Maseratis and Aston Martins in the car park.

His boss wanted his investor relations team to look the part, rather than visiting clients in clapped-out cars. Warren Buffett can afford to drive a modest car – he has nothing to prove. But a young up-and-coming financial adviser needs to make an effort.

So, as a proud taxpayer-advocate, I support the proposal to expand the number and quality of planes available to the Prime Minister, senior cabinet members, and the royal family – not just for practical reasons (government aircraft are preferable from a security perspective), but also to show that we mean business.

But baubles are not enough. The FCO as it is currently constituted is inadequate to promote Britains interests at this crucial juncture in our history.

This point was well made last week by someone who has not always seen eye to eye with the foreign secretary.

Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, described the “five fingers” of foreign policy as insight, influence, trade, alliances, and force: “a hand of friendship which can, if necessary, be clenched into a fist”.

He argued that those five fingers require strategic direction to work effectively together, lamenting the hollowing out of the FCOs role in directing foreign policy, leaving it “a shadow of its former self”.

“The consequence of all this”, he argued, “is that successive, talented foreign secretaries – including this one – have been hobbled. Theyve had the title, but they havent had the power. Diplomacy can only go so far with decisions about trade, aid, and defence taken elsewhere.”

Tugendhat then made a rallying cry for a “revolution at the heart of government”, to give the FCO responsibility for the strategic control of foreign policy, encompassing diplomacy, intelligence, defence, development aid, international trade, and leaving the EU.

In short, he called for something that few expected: “we need to give Boris Johnson more power”.

These comments received a warm reception, including from former FCO mandarin Peter Ricketts. Former chief of the Defence Staff, David Richards, has also spoken in similar terms. And over the weekend, it was announced that the Department for Exiting the EU would be folded into the FCO immediately after Brexit.

To be clear, Tugendhat wasnt calling for David Davis, Liam Fox, Penny Mordaunt and Gavin Williamson, who run these international-facing departments, to immediately report to Johnson. But to enhance and focus Britains foreign policy influence post-Brexit, this proposal deserves wider discussion.

Having Johnson in the FCO as it is currently set up is akin to giving a Formula One driver a Robin Reliant. Our top diplomat, our salesman overseas, requires a car fit for purpose. The foreign secretary needs a jet and – more importantly – strategic control of foreign policy.

Read more: Boris Johnson says Britain must come 'fully out' of the customs union

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CityAM

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