Council Leader’s £7000 jolly to Sharm el Sheikh condemned by ALBA as city faces huge budget black hole

"This is just one single example of a Council out of touch and squandering the city's resources. The cost of this trip alone could provide 100 more children free school meals this winter.”

ALBA Party’s candidate in an upcoming Glasgow City Council By-Election has condemned the Council Leader’s decision to spend over £7000 on a trip to the Sharm el Sheikh holiday resort to attend the COP27 conference.

Councillor Susan Aitken will travel to the climate event in a five-star resort in Egypt, on Tuesday with two officials and SNP Party colleagues for four nights funded by Glasgow City Council.

The trio’s trip is to cost £7227 for flights, transfers and accommodation.

On Wednesday, councillors were told they face a deficit 10 times higher than last year, and are now looking at a shortfall of nearly £120million in their budget.

ALBA Candidate in the upcoming Linn By-Election, Kirsty Fraser, has now questioned the judgement of the Council Leader of travelling to Egypt to attend a Conference that is being streamed globally online at a time that people across Glasgow are concerned about cuts to services and the rising cost of living crisis.

Commenting ALBA Candidate Kirsty Fraser said:

“Glasgow is facing huge cuts that will drive tens of thousands of people in the city into poverty and those that are already living in poverty will have life made even more difficult.

“This is just one single example of a Council out of touch and squandering the cities resources. The cost of this trip alone could provide 100 more children free school meals this winter.

“Against that backdrop, this is what the Council Leader should be focused on. The fact that she doesn’t see any issue jetting off to a 5-star holiday resort to attend a conference, on climate change, that she could’ve participated in online from her office in the Council Chambers does raise serious issues of judgment.

“The journeys that Susan Aitken should be making right now are to Holyrood to demand a greater level of Government funding for Councils and to Westminster as part of Scottish-wide efforts to highlight that it is an absurdity that Glaswegians are facing a winter of fuel poverty when we live in an energy-rich country.“