£40,000 chauffeur for Trevor Phillips
EQUALITY and human rights chief Trevor Phillips has billed the taxpayer more than £40,000 for a chauffeur-driven car to ferry him seven miles to work.
He complained he needed the vehicle because he was “expected to attend early-morning meetings” and made the luxury service a condition of his appointment.
The controversial chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission was chauffeured in the Honda Civic while he read newspapers in the back.
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Although the London Underground starts as early as 5.40am on weekdays, the driver would collect him at his home in Crouch End, north London, and drive through the capital’s congestion charge zone to the commission’s office near London Bridge.
The journey would have taken about 25 minutes, a 10-minute saving on the same trip by public transport.
Mr Phillips, who earns about £120,000 a year, used the chauffeur for almost three years, only ditching the car after a “value for money” review of the commission’s spending in April.
Its long-awaited annual report for 2008-9, published last week, contains a damning assessment of abject management failings.
The commission employs more than 500 staff and receives £53million of public money. A spokesman insisted that the chauffeur-driven vehicle had not been for Mr Phillips’ exclusive use and other senior staff members had access to it.
He said: “He also used his time in the car to carry out work on behalf of the commission, such as reading reports.”
Tory MP Philip Davies said: “It’s impossible to justify. If he really believed in equality, he would have got the Tube like millions of other Londoners do every day. The commission is shambolic and a complete waste of money.”
