Furious cobstituents have slammed a senior Labour MP who jetted abroad on a luxurious trip while they battled bin strikes. Liam Byrne, a Birmingham MP, flew 6,000 miles to Tokyo for a “fact-finding” mission in his role as chair of the business and trade committee with seven other MPs at the end of last month.
But rather than return with others on Friday after official meetings finished, the Daily Mail reports that he is understood to have extended his trip for a personal holiday. It means his constituents have not had their local MP fighting the unions during the city’s unprecedented bin collection strikes.
Mr Byrne also missed several key Commons hearings this week while the economy is under the cosh because of Donald Trump’s tariffs blitz, including an urgent question in Parliament on Monday about crisis-hit British Steel.
The official reason for the jaunt to Tokyo and Osaka by committee members was to “understand international export markets and opportunities”.
A itinerary of the trip reportedly shows that the MPs flew business class to Tokyo and stayed at the city’s swanky five-star Hotel New Otani.
The luxury hotel, with 37 bars and restaurants and 33 banquet rooms, boasts a 400-year-old, 10-acre Japanese garden complete with cascading waterfalls and lagoons which is listed as a must see for visitors.
The group also dined at the glitzy Gonpachi Nishi-Azabu restaurant, where bottles of wine cost up to £650.
Mr Byrne, it appears, may have extended his trip to coincide with the Commons’ Easter recess, which started on Wednesday and runs until April 22.
A source close to Mr Byrne last night said he was no longer in Japan but would not say where he was or give details about his exact movements since Friday.
Speaking of his MP, Qurban Hussain, 62, said: “He’s absolutely useless. The only time we see Liam Byrne is election time when he comes out. He’s away when there’s a crisis in the area.”
Another constituent, Steve, 66, said: “He shouldn’t have gone to start with and then extending it adds insult to injury. I have only recently started hearing the bin strike being mentioned in Parliament – I think it should’ve been brought up well before it was.”
Bin workers began their strike on March 11 and Birmingham City Council declared a major incident on March 31 – three days after Mr Byrne jetted off – citing public health concerns.
Members of Unite in Birmingham walked out last month in a bitter dispute over pay and jobs, leading to rubbish piling up on the city’s streets.
The two sides have been holding a series of meetings in recent days in a bid to break the deadlock.