A politician who sat in the Royal Box at Wimbledon has sparked a backlash after it emerged her trip to SW19 was funded by the taxpayer. Emma Little-Pengelly, the DUP politician who is the deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, was in attendance on Centre Court to watch Emma Raducanu beat Marketa Vondrousova in the second round. She was accompanied by her husband, Richard, who is also chief executive of the Education Authority.
It was confirmed by the Executive Office of Northern Ireland that Little-Pengelly’s trip to Wimbledon was taken in an ‘official capacity’. As such, it was funded by the taxpayer at a reported cost of nearly £1,000. According to the Irish News, the total cost of £980 included £152 on transport and £96 for ‘airport services’.
A spokesperson for the Executive Office told Express Sport: “The deputy first minister attended Wimbledon in her official capacity. The travel and accommodation costs incurred are in line with Northern Ireland Civil Service policy.”
Matthew O’Toole of the SDLP reacted furiously, telling the Irish News it was ‘astonishing that she thought it appropriate that the public should have to meet the cost of what is clearly a jolly day out at the tennis’.
He added: “The idea that official business was conducted in the Royal Box at Wimbledon insults the intelligence of the public here.
“Given the pre-existing public frustration over the hundreds of thousands of pounds spent on five-star hotel trips by ministers, it beggars belief that the deputy first minister expected the public to meet the cost of a trip that most ordinary people in Northern Ireland could only dream about.”
O’Toole also said that he was planning to ‘establish if any official business took place and why it justified cost to the public purse’.
It came after Alliance MLA Paula Bradshaw, chair of the Stormont scrutiny committee, pledged to investigate Little-Pengelly’s taxpayer-funded trip to Wimbledon.
She told the Irish News: “As a committee scrutinising the Executive Office’s work, we will want to know how such spending was in line with established departmental policy and how any such policy was developed.
“We have also noted that the expenditure appears to have covered both the deputy first minister and her husband, who also holds a prominent post linked to a different department.”
Timothy Gaston, who represents North Antrim in the Legislative Assembly, added: “Of course, the deputy first minister is quite entitled to accept the hospitality of the All England Club, but to leave the public purse to pick up the near £1,000 cost when she is already handsomely paid via the taxpayer is a bit much.
“When you break the cost of the trip down, with taxpayers even having to cover a £96 charge for ‘airport services’, whatever they were, and the £12.50 for booking costs, the story is even more outrageous.”
Little-Pengelly, who earns £125,000 per year, spent two nights in London with her husband reportedly paying for his own flights. She described being invited to the Royal Box as the ‘honour of a lifetime’.
Her husband faced criticism at the time, given that he attended Wimbledon in the midst of a crisis over a lack of school places for dozens of children with special educational needs.
Michelle O’Neill, the Northern Ireland first minister, was also invited to SW19 but declined to attend. She chose to visit Croke Park for the All-Ireland semi-final between Kerry and Tyrone with the Executive Office stating there were no taxpayer costs involved.
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