Hebrew lessons cost MP £600

Published on 11/08/2012 02:24

A CONSERVATIVE backbencher who took Hebrew lessons costing more than £600 is among nine MPs who received foreign language training at taxpayers’ expense in the last financial year.

The £676.80 cost of Grantham and Stamford MP Nick Boles’s Hebrew instruction was disclosed under Freedom of Information Act rules.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt spent £702.00 on Mandarin lessons, according to official figures.

A House of Commons spokeswoman said the approved funding enabled MPs to “learn a foreign language or develop existing skills in accordance with their parliamentary duties.”