September 1 • 2019 The Mail on Sunday^35
Queen is star of
Prorogue Show
So Stage-managed was the Queen’s
‘prorogue Parliament’ Privy Council
meeting that it could transfer straight to
a West end theatre. Not only did Her
Majesty say ‘approved’ from a prepared
script, but Dog hears Commons Leader
Jacob Rees-Mogg held a dry-run with the
monarch beforehand. If only Brexit was
so carefully orchestrated...Yes Minister’s revenge?
aCtoR Derek Fowlds, Yes Minister’s
underling civil servant to top mandarin
Sir Humphrey appleby, dreams of
reprising his role. ‘I so wish we could do an
up-to-date version of today’s shenanigans,’
he opines to football magazine Backpass.
‘Mind you, the scriptwriters would have
a job competing with the actual events.
I always say that the series was as much
documentary as comedy.’Talking of gordon, the dour
ex-labour PM finally cracked
a successful joke at the Edinburgh
international Book Festival. ‘Boris always
was against a Scot becoming Prime
Minister. i thought he was personally
against me,’ quipped gordon. ‘But i realise
it was Michael gove he was talking about.’[email protected]SportS Minister and cricket-mad
Yorkshireman Nigel Adams’s
popularity has rocketed since he offered
spare tickets to England’s Headingley
Ashes miracle. Ahead of this week’s test
at old trafford, Lancastrian Labour Mp
Lucy powell pleaded: ‘take me next time.’
Adams replied with a thumbs up. It’s as
if the War of the roses never happened.aDVISeRS desperate to make
Jeremy Corbyn look credible as an
anti-No Deal unity leader have ‘banned’
him from signing a public pledge to set
up an alternative parliament with other
party leaders if the real one is suspended.
‘Jeremy was gagging to go but his minders
decided it wouldn’t look prime ministerial,’
said a mole. John McDonnell went instead.FuMINg that radio 4’s today failed
to give prominence to a Sajid Javid
aide being sacked for alleged leaking, Blair
henchman Alastair Campbell claimed
they’d have done more if he’d ordered
cops to escort gordon Brown spindoctor
Charlie Whelan ‘from the building without
a job or a security pass’. ‘Bet you wish you
could have though!’ shot back Whelan.black
dog
black
dog
[email protected]QuEuINg up for a Commons cuppa,
Boris Johnson’s younger brother Jo
was asked by a tea lady: ‘Why aren’t you in
your big brother’s Cabinet?’ ‘I didn’t want
to be,’ Jo was overheard replying. Very
modest. He already ‘attends’ Cabinet as
universities Minister but was big brother
ready to hand out an even bigger job?Astonishing expense
claims of university
chiefs on £350,000
By James Heale
MILLIoNS of students may be
struggling to make ends meet but
bosses at Britain’s elite universi-
ties are enjoying luxury hotels,
fine dining and executive travel,
the Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Vice-chancellors have been
criticised over pay packages
averaging more than £350,000 –
but our findings show they have
also spent more than £1.5 million
between them on expenses.
Figures from 20 of the 24 Rus-
sell group of universities reveal
that staff have not only run up
bills of thousands of pounds on
high-end travel and accommo-
dation, they also claim for more
minor outlays such as £2.25 in
chicken restaurant Nando’s.
Records covering the past three
years show Cambridge Univer-
sity spent £39,749 booking staff
into five-star hotels, including
the Hong Kong Four Seasons,
Singapore’s Fullerton Hotel and
the taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai.
a spokesman said ‘appropriate’
venues were needed for high-
level business, adding they are
‘committed to making savings’.
Durham’s £296,000-a-year vice-
chancellor Stuart Corbridge
charged £24,609 for flights,
though a spokesman said: ‘He
only travels business class if it’s
overnight or if he has a meeting
directly after a long-haul flight.’
at Bristol University, which
has declared a ‘climate emer-
gency’, staff racked up thousands
of air miles between 2015 and
2018, including six visits toShanghai and two to Washington
DC. Five senior officials also
charged for 111 trips with cab
firm Uber. a spokesman said
international travel was a vital
part of the university’s work.
the records of credit and
charge-card spending, obtained
under Freedom of Information
laws, also reveal how thoroughsome expense claims are. Car-
diff’s former pro vice-chancellor
Dylan Jones spent £32.36 in a
Punjabi McDonald’s, and his suc-
cessor Nora de Leeuw spent £461
at a pizza restaurant in Brazil.
While there is no suggestion of
wrongdoing, the figures come
amid concern about inflated
salaries. Last year, Dame glynis
Breakwell resigned as Bath’s
vice-chancellor in a row over her
£468,000 annual pay package.
Claire Sosienski Smith, of the
National Union of Students, said
of the expense claims: ‘Senior
management must see them-
selves as accountable to students
and prioritise spending that will
benefit the entire university
community, rather than individ-
ual members of staff.’
Unusual expenses from staff at
oxford included £6.10 at Haagen-
Dazs ice cream in Brussels, £22
at Hotel Chocolat, £42 at a whisky
shop and £270 at M&S. a spokes-man said: ‘these expenses were
a legitimate part of their work
maintaining oxford’s excep-
tional academic environment.’
ed Byrne, the £350,000-a-year
head of King’s College London,
made 43 trips to the capital’s
athe naeum private club at a cost
of £4,068. Senior staff also spent a
total of £9,013 on five-star hotels,
including the Ritz, the Sydney
Harbour Marriott and the Full-
erton in Singapore – as well as
£6.10 in an odeon cinema.
expense claims by Newcastle
U n i v e r s i t y ’s s e n i o r t e a m
included £2.25 in Nando’s, £5.99
in Burger King and £3 in Pryzm,
a nightclub popular with stu-
dents. By contrast, two staff
members stayed at the five-star
Renaissance Hong Kong Har-
bour View Hotel and the St
Regis Beijing hotel, costing
£2,811 and £1,049 respectively. a
spokesman said: ‘Newcastle is a
global university with campuses
in South east asia. this involves
international travel.’
of the 24 institutions asked for
information, glasgow said it did
not have a corporate credit card.
Leeds, Sheffield and Southamp-
ton did not provide figures.Additional reporting: Cameron
Wickenden and Julia AtherleyPayouts include £39,000
for hotels, £2 for Nando’s
and £6 for Haagen-Dazs
‘Senior staff must be
more accountable’
V1liB D EM leader Jo
Swinson’s ‘head girl’
manner grates even
with her own side. ‘She
does comes across as too
much of a school prefect
or student union
president to appeal to
the older Middle
England voters we
need to win over,’
sniped one lib Dem disloyally.
‘She needs to cut her hair shorter and
dress a bit older.’ Er, for the record,
‘young’ Ms Swinson, above, is 39.‘School prefect’ Jo’s
irritating her elders