Gulfnews: Livingstone caught in a row over his secret trip to Cuba: "Livingstone caught in a row over his secret trip to Cuba

By Ross Lydall, Evening Standard


London: Ken Livingstone was yesterday at the centre of a foreign junkets furore after planning a secret visit to Cuba. The Mayor is spending five days there before heading to Venezuela to secure a deal to obtain cheap oil for London.

No details had been released of the publicly funded Cuba trip, sparking suspicions that it is an excuse for Livingstone to meet ailing president Fidel Castro.

The Mayor's aide said he had flown to Cuba to attend a sporting conference sponsored by the International Olympic Committee. Accompanied by two aides, he arrived on Friday night.

The 11th World Sport For All conference ended at midday yesterday, giving Livingstone just three hours to attend seminars of little obvious use to Londoners or the capital's hosting of the 2012 Games.

Angie Bray, Tory group leader on the London Assembly, said: 'If he has gone to do the Olympics stuff, why has he arrived on the last day of the conference? It's outrageous that he's charging the taxpayer for what I suspect is a visit to his old comrade who is very ill.'"