Commons Speaker John Bercow charged the taxpayer nearly £180 for appearing in Alex Salmond’s Edinburgh Festival show.
Mr Bercow put his flights and Heathrow Express ticket on expenses when he was a special guest for the former SNP leader.
Mr Salmond’s ‘Unleashed’ show in Edinburgh in August was sold out for the whole run. It was billed as ‘light-hearted banter and a few behind the scenes revelations about his time in power’, with tickets costing £22.50.
However, Mr Salmond also came under fire for making a crude and sexist joke on stage.
John Bercow (pictured right) put his flights and Heathrow Express tickets on expenses when he was a special guest for former SNP leader Alec Salmond at his Edinburgh Festival show
During an interview with Mr Salmond, Mr Bercow expressed a ‘personal’ view that Westminster should follow Holyrood’s lead by intoducing electronic voting for MPs.
He also repeated his backing for online voting in general elections.
According to the latest official expenses details published by the Commons, the Speaker’s flights to Edinburgh cost the taxpayer £160.
He also used the Heathrow Express at a cost of £16.50.
A spokeswoman for the Speaker said: ‘Mr Bercow was invited in his capacity as Speaker to address one of Alex Salmond’s fringe events at the Edinburgh Festival.’
During one performance of the Edinburgh show, Mr Salmond told the audience: ‘I promised you today we’d either have Theresa May or Nicola Sturgeon, or Ruth Davidson or Melania Trump, but I couldn’t make any of these wonderful women come…’
Following a drum roll by the onstage band he added: ‘To the show’.
Critics complained the ex-MP had reduced women to ‘sexualising punchlines’, while Nicola Sturgeon jibed that he was ‘not as funny as he thinks he is’.
Following the success of the Fringe event – which also featured Brexit Secretary David Davis as a guest – Mr Salmond secured his own regular political chat show on RT.
However, he soon became embroiled in controversy again after criticism that he was supporting a Russian state propaganda channel.
Both Mr Bercow and former PM David Cameron decided against appearing as guests on the programme amid a widespread boycott by politicians.
Among £2,800 of expenses clocked up by Mr Bercow between June and December last year, some £1,100 went on him and a staff member attending the G7 Speaker’s conference in Rome in September.
Following the success of the Fringe event (pictured) Mr Salmond secured his own regular political chat show on RT