Government needs a London office so it will not be out-lobbied by rival British Overseas Territories who already have Offices in the UK capital, Premier Alex Scott said yesterday.

But the Opposition charged yesterday that the $500,000 a year office was too expensive and was a stealth embassy.

Premier Scott said in the House of Assembly that Bermuda was the largest of the UK's remaining Overseas Territories but one of the few that did not have permanent representation in London.

"The size and scale of the operations of the other Territories varies," Premier Scott said. "Gibraltar, Cayman, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the British Virgin Islands and the Falkland Islands have relatively large and sophisticated operations while the smaller Overseas Territories have more modest facilities."

He said Cayman had a London office for the last 37 years.

"The time has not only come, it has long been an oversight by the previous Government," he said.

Gibraltar had an office on the Strand, he said, while Cayman were present in Piccadilly.

Both these offices had responsibilities that ranged from tourism to the promotion of investment and financial services.

Bermuda's London Office will work with both parties of the UK Parliament, the UK Overseas Territory Association and business leaders, he said.

It will promote tourism in the UK and Europe and organise UK visits by Government Ministers.

Students studying in the UK will be able to use the Office as a home base for finding jobs back home, he said.

The three-member London Tourism Office will be incorporated into the new Office, he said, which was looking for new premises and was recruiting staff.

The $88,000 listed in the Cabinet Budget will be used to rent London office space and it will be oepned this year.

"I cannot at this stage say with certainty where it will be but my hope is to hold the official opening ceremony in September to coincide with my attendance at the Overseas Territories Consultative Council in London," he said.

"For Bermuda, a London Office can be utilised as a gateway to the rest of world."

But said a London Office had no purpose.

Needing a London Office just because every other island had one was like a child telling its mother: "They have it. We have to have it too!"

"I get the impression that the Premier ? who is very much interested in independence ? will now say it is an embassy of Bermuda in the future," Mr. Furbert said. "Why do we really need an office in London."

Cabinet's Budget had increased 13.5 percent per year, and went from $2.761 million in 2004 to $4.383 million in 2006, he said.

"So it is strange the Premier said there were no changes in the last three years," Mr. Furbert added.

Mr. Furbert suggested Government cut Cabinet's travel budget down significantly and asked whether civil servants also went with the Premier on a trip to Cayman last week.

"Did Cayman pay for their trips too?" he asked. "No more filet mignon."

He recalled that when he was a Minister a civil servant asked him whether he wanted a limousine on his London trip, but he declined asking for a London cab instead.

"It's the people's money," he said. "Ensuring keeping expenditure down means less tax we need to raise."

However, said it was strategic, prudent and necessary to start a London Office.

He said it would protect and promote the national interest as long as staff were available, affable and able.

The US and UK had had a special relationship since the Second World War he said, and a London Office would give Bermuda an entree into that partnership.

"The din of cannons has silenced and global commerce is the new battleground," he said. "This is the stuff of economic and political diplomacy."

Opposition MPs were smug, smirked, and made unhelpful, off-colour remarks, he added.alsoasked why travel had increased so much at Cabinet, enough for $25,000 for each staff member, enough to: "Pick your place and have a go!"

Speaking on Cabinet's spending of $1.24 million on professional services, asked how many consultants Cabinet had, and how much was paid to them.

An office in very expensive London needed not just trappings but substance, he said.

"You have got to have people who know the lay of the land, not just stuff it with friends," he said. "Rent temporary office space. There are a lot of ways to do it without setting up in a very expensive city."

Dr. Gibbons assumed that travel and accommodation expenses would also increase unless Government intended purchasing London property.

Government backbencher said Bermuda had been woefully remiss in not having a London Office, Ms Webb said.

"We are still British and are a major international financial centre and need to be taken seriously," she said.

But $500,000 was also a woefully low amount of money, she said, agreeing London was very expensive.