Rishi Sunak has called on critics to stop bashing his chopper.

The defiant PM defended repeated use of helicopters and planes for short journeys across Britain as the “most efficient use of my time”.

It came after fury over his latest trip to Scotland to announce more North Sea oil and gas extraction despite green campaigners urging him to ditch fossil fuels.

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Climate change activists say Rishi’s jetsetting is unnecessarily pumping harmful CO2 into the atmosphere.

Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Wera Hobhouse raged: “The Prime Minister just cannot help himself. He should catch a train for once to see what the rest of us have to put up with.

“When you catch private flights to Southampton and Dorset, you know you have a problem.”

His journey on Monday (July 31) was the latest in a series of jaunts by the PM that have sparked criticism.

He and Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky took a Chinook helicopter to visit troops in Dorset in February.

And in May he flew 70 miles from London to Southampton, inset, instead of driving or using the train.

On Friday (July 28) he flew in a luxury Bell 429 GlobalRanger chopper from London to Chester to visit the premises of online retailer Net World Sports.

The journey – which would have taken just 10 minutes longer by train – would have emitted more than a tonne of CO2 into the atmosphere during the hottest month yet recorded.

Shadow attorney general Emily ­Thornberry has accused Rishi of living a "helicopter lifestyle".

She said: "If the PM thinks the only way he can travel round Britain is by helicopter let him say so but stop taking us for fools by constantly trying to hide it."

Labour MP Darren Jones has branded him "Chopper Rishi" and accused him of making pronouncements `from the sky above us all’.

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