TONY BLAIR has snubbed Gallic pride and risked further straining his relationship with President Chirac by turning his nose up at a series of personal gifts of finest French wine.

Four times in the past year M Chirac, who has clashed with Mr Blair over issues ranging from the Iraq war to the proposed European constitution, sent wine to Downing Street.

On each occasion Mr Blair, a keen connoisseur of good wine, turned down the chance to acquire the bottles. According to the Cabinet Office, the four consignments of wine are still “held by the Prime Minister’s office”. Downing Street refused yesterday to discuss the type or vintage of the wine or to say what would happen to it.

One explanation might be personal. Mr Blair and M Chirac have had ferocious clashes in the past at summits, particularly when France blocked British attempts to reform European farm subsidies.

Another explanation could be aesthetic. The Prime Minister loves full-bodied red wine, but is a Chianti rather than a Bordeaux or Burgundy man.

There could be another reason altogether: cost. When M Chirac sent a half case of wine to Mr Blair three years ago as a 50th birthday present, Whitehall rules meant it set the Prime Minister back more than £1,000, because the 1989 Chateau Mouton Rothschild was valued at £195 a bottle.

Mr Blair did redeem presents of a print of London from the 2012 Olympic bid team (£300), five Russian coins from President Putin (£200) and a lead crystal vase from Silvio Berlusconi’s Government (£150).

Gordon Brown, who is usually frugal, accepted just one gift: a pedal-powered car for his son, John. The Chancellor paid £190 to keep the model red Ferrari racing car, a present from Giulio Tremonti, Italy’s former Finance Minister and then Vice President of the EU’s Council of Ministers, when on a visit to Britain last year.

Separate figures also revealed that it cost more than £2 million to transport and accommodate the Prime Minister during his 58 days spent overseas in the year to April.

This was more than double the cost of his 21 foreign visits in 2004-05, which came to £809,152, and almost four times as expensive as Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary until May, who was away 87 days at a cost of £595,494. Mr Blair’s foreign expeditions represented a third of the cost of the entire ministerial travel budget.

Mr Blair, who only took chartered flights during this period, went on 22 foreign visits. Downing Street has already announced that Mr Blair and the Queen are to lease two aircraft for use on official trips, replacing the Royal Flight and privately chartered planes.

The most expensive of these chartered flights was the four-day trip to Riyadh and then Singapore, where the International Olympic Committee was voting on the location of the 2012 games. It cost £492,880. The second most expensive trip was the eight-day visit to Melbourne for the Commonwealth Games, then Canberra, Auckland and Jakarta in March, costing £437,921.

One reason for the cost of Mr Blair’s trips is his retinue. He took 35 officials with him to the Commonwealth Games, while 39 accompanied him to China and India.

Margaret Beckett, who was Environment Secretary until May and then took over as Foreign Secretary, was one of the Government’s most regular travellers. Before swapping jobs she spent 71 days away, at a cost of £101,614. John Reid, the Defence Secretary until May, spent £311,395. visits to Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Kuwait cost around £50,000 each, although a trip to Iraq in December cost just £2,671.

While some Cabinet members, such as Tessa Jowell, took exclusively scheduled flights over the past year, others such as Gordon Brown chartered their own aircraft on almost every occasion, despite not being considered to be a security risk. The Chancellor took chartered flights or used the RAF’s No 32 Squadron on 11 of his 13 trips, at a cost of £50,626.

Charles Clarke, who was Home Secretary until May, went on 14 trips at the taxpayers’ expense. This included the outward leg of his holiday to New York last year costing just under £4,000, which was paid because he missed his prearranged flight as a result of “essential Home Office business”.

The list of ministerial gifts shows that poor John Prescott received only one present during the period: the cowboy outfit of Stetson hat, boots, spurs and personalised belt and buckle from the businessman Philip Anschutz during the visit to his Colorado ranch.

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