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11
Dec
Exclusive: Mayor spent £618 on hotel rooms for Prime Minister meeting
David Skaith, the Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, spent £618 on two hotel rooms on a trip to meet the Prime Minister.
This is among a series of expenses claims made by the Labour mayor that have only just been disclosed following a Stray Ferret investigation.
Mr Skaith was elected mayor on May 3 last year. But 19 months on, there is still no record of his monthly expenses on the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority website.
By comparison, Jo Coles, the deputy mayor for policing, is legally required to publish her personal expenses — though she has not filed any since July.
When the Stray Ferret queried the situation in August, a spokesperson for the combined authority told us that although it was not a legal requirement for it to publish the mayor’s expenses, it was “planning to start publishing” the information soon.
This has yet to happen.
However, following a request to see them by the Stray Ferret, the combined authority finally sent us Mr Skaith's expenditure claims for the period from May 2024 to January 2025. His expenses for this year have yet to be revealed.
Hotels and trains
The information released covers expenses claims made between April and December 2024 via credit card transaction.
They included £618.30 for two hotel rooms for one night on July 7.
The combined authority said the claim related to Mr Skaith and an officer meeting Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer after the general election in London.
Another claim was for £639.20 for a hotel in Liverpool on September 23 for the mayor's political advisor.
A combined authority spokesperson said it was "standard practice" for the combined authority to pay for accommodation for members of staff "fulfilling their role".
According to the spokesperson, the mayor paid for his own accommodation for the trip.
The mayor also claimed £184 for a hotel room in Edinburgh for a meeting with the Council of Nation and Regions on October 11.
The council, which was set up by Sir Keir Starmer last year, includes the Prime Minister, the first ministers of the three devolved administrations and the mayors of England’s combined authorities.
David Skaith and Sir Keir Starmer after his mayoral election win.
The mayor also spent £309 on a two-night stay at a Premier Inn in London during a trip to the International Investment Summit, which took place in London on October 13 and 14 last year.
The summit, at the Guildhall in the City of London, included a speech from the Prime Minister on economic growth.
A reception was also held on October 13 at St Paul’s Cathedral, which was attended by King Charles, government ministers and Sir Elton John who performed at the event.
Cllr Keane Duncan.
'Secrecy and obstruction'
Keane Duncan, a Conservative who ran against Mr Skaith for mayor and the North Yorkshire councillor for Norton, accused the mayor of secrecy and said the information revealed "raise serious questions".
Cllr Duncan said:
David Skaith pledged to be a ‘value for money mayor', yet he has failed to publish a single expense since taking office.
Taxpayers deserve full transparency, not secrecy and obstruction.
People can only decide if he offers the value for money he promised when they have all the facts.
Right now, the facts we do have raise serious questions for the mayor to answer.
Meanwhile, Keith Tordoff, who ran against Mr Skaith as an independent, described it as a “dereliction of duty” not to publish expenses information.
He said:
In relation to the elected Mayor of York and North through the combined authority not publishing his expenses on a regular basis this is not acceptable and a dereliction of duty on someone's part.
The people of York and North Yorkshire voted for leadership and transparency.
Mayor's pledge
In response to the Stray Ferret's questions over his expenses, Mr Skaith has pledged to publish his expenses claims in full on the combined authority website from the new year.
A spokesperson for the mayor told the Stray Ferret:
The mayor takes transparency very seriously, as such from Monday 5 January his diary, gifts and hospitality register, and expenses will all be published each quarter, alongside information about his office.
A combined authority spokesperson added that it intended to publish a “detailed analysis of his expenses” by the end of the week and “wider transparency data” will be published in the new year.
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