SOUTHAMPTON'S first Green councillor has hit out at Rishi Sunak for flying to Southampton from London on a helicopter.

Katherine Barbour, the newly-elected councillor for Portswood, said the Prime Minister is "showing disregard for our world and environmental issues".

It comes after Mr Sunak flew to Southampton on Tuesday on a taxpayer-funded helicopter for a journey which takes less than 90 minutes by train.

The Mirror reported that a helicopter left RAF Northolt at 8.53am to pick up the Prime Minister at Wellington Barracks in Westminster and take him to Southampton Airport where it landed at 9.47am.

READ MORE: Rishi Sunak flew to Southampton in taxpayer-funded helicopter

His visit to Southampton - the city he was born in - coincided with the unveiling of new plans to ease GP pressures by shifting some services to pharmacies - an announcement the Daily Echo was barred from attending by No 10.

Cllr Barbour told the Daily Echo: "I most certainly don't agree with people using a helicopter to get to Southampton when there is a perfectly good train service that would have got him here in an equivalent journey time.

"Every issue like this we have to go back to the basics of the Green Party, people need to reduce their carbon footprint not increase it and to show examples to the population that the leadership are taking the climate crisis seriously.

"Rishi Sunak is showing disregard for our world and environmental issues by this behaviour."

READ MORE: No 10 praises Echo for holding politicians to account - then avoids questions

The Prime Minister visited Weston Lane Surgery where he praised the practice and the "fantastic" care their patients receive.

However, the GP partner he met said the surgery needs more government support, adding that some of the changes to be rolled out across the country, such as blood pressure checks in pharmacies rather than GP practices, have already happened at Weston Lane.

Mr Sunak told national journalists: "We are investing more in (pharmacies). Eighty per cent of the country lives about 20 minutes’ walk from a pharmacy, and for many people they are an easier place to access than their surgery.

"That’s why we’re investing more in them and allowing them to do more, and it’s not just more medicines that people will be able to get there."