DOWNING STREET was accused last night of issuing a misleading statement about Tony Blair’s use of the Queen’s Flight for a Christmas holiday in Egypt.

David Hill, the Prime Minister’s director of communications, claimed in a letter to The Times yesterday that the Blair family had booked commercial flights but “had to switch to an RAF aircraft at the last minute on the express advice of the Security Committee”.

A military source said, however, that the British Embassy in Cairo had been told a month before the Blairs’ arrival in Egypt that they would be catching the Royal Flight. The embassy was ordered to make arrangements for the BAe 146, which is fitted out in similar style to a luxury corporate jet.

The defence attaché at the embassy was told at the end of November to arrange a contract with an Egyptian company that was to communicate on behalf of the RAF with Sharm el Sheikh airport and companies supplying VIP catering and fuel for the return journey. The royal jet flew to the Red Sea resort on Boxing Day 2004 and the six crew members spent the next ten days in a £100-a-night hotel waiting for the Blairs to finish their holiday. The cost of keeping the crew in Sharm el Sheikh was not included in the official accounts for the Royal Flight, which state that the trip cost the taxpayer £31,000. Mr Hill admitted yesterday that the decision to use the Royal Flight had been made in November. He said: “You might argue about whether three weeks or a month before is last minute. But for the Prime Minister to switch you need some lead-in time. I would have thought it is perfectly reasonable to say the end of November is last minute.”

Chris Grayling, the Shadow Transport Secretary, said: “Most people would not regard a month’s notice as last minute. Whenever you get an issue like this Downing Street always seems to head straight into slippery mode. They say one thing one day and another the next and end up creating a fog of confusion.”

He asked why the Blairs had persisted with their trip despite knowing well in advance that it would cost the taxpayer several times more than they were paying for their entire holiday.

Downing Street said that the Blairs had booked commercial flights in August 2004. Towards the end of that year the intelligence services detected a range of potential threats to Western targets. Mr Hill said that the decision to use the Royal Flight had been made not just to protect the Blairs but also to ensure that members of the public were not exposed to additional risk by travelling with the Prime Minister.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said it was normal practice for the crew of the Royal Flight to wait in hotels for Mr Blair to finish his visits.

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