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EXPENSIVE TRAVEL TASTE: Boris Johnson claimed nearly £4,000 for Middle East flights (PA)

LONDON MAYOR Boris Johnson has been called to account after he and his top aides were accused of claiming back an “outrageous” amount of expenses following a trade trip to the Middle East.

London Assembly leader Len Duvall complained about Johnson trying to reclaim almost £4,000 having claimed £1,945 for a flight from London to Kuwait via Dubai and £1,877 for a plane ticket from Doha to London.

In reaction to the criticism, the mayor’s office said the “claims were within the rules”.

Speaking about the complaint lodged with the monitoring officer of the Greater London Authority, Duvall said: “The behaviour of the mayor and his top aides is outrageous: do they seriously think it's OK to claim this amount of money on flights?

“City Hall rules are very clear and only economy class tickets should be claimed back.

“If the mayor and his aides want to waste their own money on first-class flights then that's fine, but they shouldn't be using taxpayers' money.”

During the same trip to the region, Johnson’s chief economic advisor Gerard Lyons claimed back the same amount as the mayor, but head of media Sam Hart only claimed £476 for a flight to the Gulf as part of the same visit.

A spokesperson for Johnson, who was re-elected mayor of London in 2012, said: “The mayor is comfortable that these claims were within the rules.

“The complaint will be dealt with in due course.”