Dr Cunningham faces calls for an inquiry

Dr Cunningham's alleged expenses made on ministerial business were described by The Sunday Times as "extravagant".

It reported that he was facing growing demands for a parliamentary inquiry into his spending habits after civil servants leaked details of his use of top class hotels, restaurants and flights.

Five-star hotel

The newspaper reports that he flew to the US on Concorde last week, stayed at the five-star Conrad Hotel in Brussels last July, and has eaten at a two-star Michelin restaurant - all at taxpayers' expense.

A spokeswoman for the Cabinet Office confirmed that Dr Cunningham had flown to the US by Concorde last Wednesday but said this was because it was the last flight of the day leaving London for New York or Washington.

"His diary that day, in particular the need for him to answer oral questions and to respond for the Government on a debate in the House of Commons that afternoon, meant he could not have been scheduled to catch any earlier flight," the spokeswoman said.

"He went to Washington at the invitation of the US Vice-President Al Gore to address an important international conference on modernising government."

Present at the conference were the US President, Bill Clinton, Mr Gore, the New Zealand Prime Minister Jenny Shipley and ministers from 20 other countries.

The spokeswoman said that Dr Cunningham attends a Cabinet committee on the issue and that the government was planning to publish a white paper on modernising government in the spring. "It was important that the UK should be represented at the conference at Cabinet level," she said.

Dr Cunningham had returned on a normal British Airways 747 flight, the spokeswoman said.

'We will respond to complaints'

The Home Secretary Jack Straw said he could not comment on the detail of the allegations about Dr Cunningham but said that any complaint would be investigated.

Jack Straw: "The rules are clear"

He told the BBC's On the Record programme: "There are clear rules for the use of aeroplanes and accommodation for Cabinet ministers, the clearest rules, and they are very clearly enforced, first of all by the Cabinet Secretariat and then by the National Audit Office and if there is any complaint they will be looked into."

He added: "There has now been a complaint about them and of course there will be a response to them."

Ministerial business

The newspaper report follows claims last week that Dr Cunningham decided to take private jets instead of scheduled flights to European Union meetings when he was agriculture minister.

A statement from the Cabinet Office on behalf of Dr Cunningham issued on Sunday justified these expenses.

"Dr Cunningham was required to stay overnight in Brussels and elsewhere frequently during his time as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, particularly during the UK Presidency of the European Union and in pursuit of lifting the EU beef export ban. He stayed at a number of hotels including the Conrad, which was also used by various of his EU ministerial counterparts," it said.

'Millionaire lifestyle'

The Shadow Agriculture Minister, Tim Yeo, said he will be calling for a Commons inquiry. "Jack Cunningham's ministerial expenses show just how far removed from the people's priorities Labour have become in government," said Mr Yeo.

"The British taxpayer should not be asked to subsidise Jack Cunningham's millionaire lifestyle.