Glasgow Labour councillors are set to jet off on taxpayer-funded foreign trips as the local authority signs off on millions of pounds of cuts.

Council leader Frank McAveety and Councillor George Redmond will be in the South of France at a property show later this month.

Mr Redmond is also spending several days in New York on a junket aimed at promoting Glasgow. He won’t be back in the city until March 10, the day the local authority sets its budget.

Glasgow City Council is facing a budget black hole of more than £130million but the week after the axe falls Mr McAveety will be in the French Riviera at a property show with Mr Redmond.

Mipim brings together “the most influential players from all international property sectors,” according to its website.

Delegates are charged around £1,200 to attend and Glasgow City Council is sending a team of six people.

Mr McAveety and Mr Redmond are expected to be at the ‘Invest in Glasgow Drinks Reception’ on March 15 at the four star Hôtel Gray d'Albion in Cannes.

The ticketed event is organised by Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, according to the Mipim website.

“We would be delighted to welcome you to an informal early evening drinks and networking session headed by council leader, Frank McAveety, and chief executive, Annemarie O’Donnell,” the listing states. “Invest Glasgow, our partners and sponsors look forward to seeing you there.”

Mr McAveety is also expected to attend the launch of the Glasgow Investment Guide at a breakfast event the following day.

The council leader’s advisor, Bob Wylie, may also be on the trip to France, if work commitments allow.

He said: “It’s customary practice that the leader goes and his advisor goes so the places were booked with Mipim in that fashion. We can change the tickets, it depends on what the workload is next week.”

Mr Wylie was in charge of public relations at transport quango Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) when it emerged in 2010 that councillors and officials had clawed back more than £100,000 in expenses and gone on foreign fact-finding trips.

Mr Wylie later handed back expenses racked up during a junket to Manchester on the day Rangers played in the 2008 UEFA Cup final.

A council source confirmed the trips to the US and France and said they will be “at the expense of the Glasgow council tax payer”.

The source, who asked not to be named, said: “This is all happening when councillors have to pass the toughest ever budget that will see significant cuts affecting the most vulnerable citizens.”

One Labour councillor, who also asked to remain anonymous, described the scheduled foreign trips as “an affront to the people of Glasgow”.

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council’s SNP group said: “Whilst it is important that we continue to promote Glasgow to the world as a place to do business it is just as important the administration don’t repeat the past excesses of Labour in Glasgow. Unfortunately it looks like they might.”

Eben Wilson, Director of Taxpayer Scotland, also took a swipe at the local authority.

He said: “To see politicians and high paid officials disappear on foreign trips at taxpayers’ expense when several hundred employees could lose their jobs is the height of tactlessness. It smacks of privilege for the few, over care and support for the many.

“We all know times are tough and money is scarce. It shouldn’t be used for this sort of junketing.”

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council defended the foreign trips as “money well spent” and insisted they will bring investment to the city.

He said: “MIPIM is one the largest property investment events in the world, and our attendance there in recent years has directly led to investment from Europe and North America alone of more than £100million on a number of development projects in Glasgow city centre.

“Glasgow is a world-class city and we’re experiencing significant demand for office, hotel and residential development. The city’s representation at MIPIM will help secure further investment and jobs, and the cost of attending is money well spent. All of our competitor cities will be at this event and not attending would be a false economy, putting Glasgow at a disadvantage.

“The ‘A Great Night In with Glasgow’ business networking reception in New York is the culmination of a six-month campaign aimed at bringing tourism, trade and investment from the USA to Glasgow and the UK, as well as raising awareness of our world-class education sector.

“The council is part of a delegation from Glasgow, which includes senior staff from the city’s higher and further education sectors, and they will underline our strong partnership with all three sectors – each one key to our successful economic performance.

“Last summer, Glasgow City Marketing Bureau made a successful bid for GREAT UK Challenge funding for this campaign which gives Glasgow a showcase in the USA.”