The Sri Lankan government has revealed that former president Ranil Wickremesinghe hired a butler for a trip to the United Kingdom, paying an astonishing £1,000 per day, for which he tried to claim expenses through the High Commission in London.
The two-day trip, made in September last year, cost a staggering £40,000 in total, said Leader of the House Minister Bimal Rathnayake.
The disclosure comes in the aftermath of an Al Jazeera interview by Wickremesinghe, which has catapulted him back into international controversy and leading to his role in the Batalanda torture camps being thrust back into the spotlight.
According to Rathnayake, the trip took place on the 22nd and 23rd of September 2023, covering London and Wolverhampton. Wickremesinghe was accompanied by his wife, Senaratne Dissanayake, security personnel, a doctor, and an advance security team—a delegation totalling ten people. Funding for the trip was requested from the London High Commission on August 16, 2023, under the classification of “most urgent” and “strictly confidential”.
What initially began as a private trip was later reclassified as an official programme, raising questions about how such a transformation occurred and whether taxpayer funds were misused. Rathnayake disclosed that the total expenses for the trip amounted to £40,000 (approximately Rs. 16.2 million), including £2,000 specifically spent on the butler’s services.
Rathnayake called for an immediate investigation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs into the approval process and expenditure of public funds for the trip.
The revelations come at a time when Sri Lanka continues to recover from an economic collapse, with millions of people still struggling with soaring food prices and austerity measures.
This latest controversy adds to Wickremesinghe’s growing list of scandals. His tenure as president was marred by accusations of protecting the Rajapaksa family, shielding military officials from accountability for war crimes, and overseeing crackdowns on protesters during the Aragalaya movement.
It also comes just weeks after his disastrous interview with Al Jazeera, where he repeatedly threatened to walk out when questioned about state repression and war crimes