David Cameron accused of 'swanning around like a Kardashian sister at taxpayers' expense' after Foreign Secretary hires £42m private jet for his five-day trip to 'The Stans'

David Cameron has been accused of 'swanning around like a Kardashian sister' at taxpayers' expense after hiring a £42million private jet for his latest trip.

The Foreign Secretary undertook a five-day tour of central Asia last week as he visited Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

But Labour have blasted the former PM for 'unacceptable extravagance' over his choice of taxpayer-funded transport.

It has emerged how Lord Cameron chartered an Embraer Lineage 1000 for his trip, which has been described as 'one of the best luxury private jets money can buy'.

The luxurious aircreft is estimated to cost $52.5million (£41.8million) if bought new, or $14,850 per hour (£11,850) to hire.

Last year, James Cleverly - Lord Cameron's predecessor as Foreign Secretary - was revealed to have spent £422,747 on hiring the same type of plane for a week-long tour of the Caribbean and Latin America.

Labour's Emily Thornberry, the shadow attorney general, told the Mirror: 'Sometimes, on a trip like this, ministers will need to use non-scheduled flights, and if the Government's dedicated RAF jets are unavailable, they may have to charter a plane. That is all fine.

'But in no world do those circumstances justify hiring one of the most expensive, most luxurious private jets on the market. That is an unacceptable extravagance.

'It's less than a year since James Cleverly was caught spending £422,000 on exactly the same type of jet. But instead of learning from that debacle, David Cameron has used it as a template.

'They are supposed to use taxpayers' money as carefully as possible, not swan around the world like a pair of Kardashian sisters at the British public's expense.'

A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'The Foreign Secretary's job requires him to travel abroad. This was the most time-effective way to do this.'

In 2015, when he was PM, Lord Cameron claimed he was related to reality TV star Kim Kardashian.

Asked by Heat magazine whether he watched TV show Keeping Up With The Kardashians, featuring Kim and her family, Mr Cameron replied: 'No, but I'm related to them. Did you know I'm 13th cousins with them?'