| MPs Pay
From Second Jobs |
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Expenses |
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| MPs On
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Pay-Offs |
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PERKS
MPs claimed almost £120,000 a year on top of
their salaries and used this to help pay off
homes worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. The
total for all MPs in 2003 was £78million. The
taxpayers’ bill for some MPs tops £200,000
a year once their pension contributions of
£13,526 are added in. Mileage allowances at
57.7p a mile are double the rate for most
businessmen and receipts are rarely required.
When questioned, one Labour MP said, "It has
nothing to do with you." |
DRAIN ON TAXPAYERS
The average MP costs taxpayers £175,000 a year.
MPs were paid a total of £115million in salaries
and allowances in 2003. Salary costs stayed
steady with MPs earning £56,358 a year.
But "allowance" payments rose 13%.
Backbenchers were given more generous allowances
for staff and office equipment after the 2001
election.
Most MPs employ three staff to deal with
paperwork and constituency business compared with
one or two before 2001. Many also took advantage
of the change to upgrade computers.
Commons authorities paid £75.4million in
allowances for 2002-03, almost £9million up on
the previous year's £66.7million. The figure
excludes additional payments to Ministers for
their work. |
HYPOCRISY
Tory leader David Cameron may cycle to work but
there's a car following behind carrying his
briefcase, a shirt and a pair of highly-polished
shoes.
This is the same MP who, in the past, has blasted
mums for using their cars on the school run
instead of walking.
Steven Hounsham, of Transport 2000, commented,
"It's unbelievable. If there's a good reason
for making a car journey to transport shoes, a
case and a shirt then I'd like to hear it."
And Labour MP Stephen Hepburn said, "What do
you expect from Tories but hypocrisy?"
Something a Labour MP would never do, eh?
(Source: Daily Mirror, Apr/06) |
SALARY INCREASE
MPs want a massive £12,000 rise on top of their
£60,000 pay and huge expenses. And long-serving
backbenchers, who often occupy safe seats but
achieve very little, want even MORE to reward
their time-serving.
Jack Straw, leader of the Commons, announced MPs
would get a 2% rise in the next year, but that
merely led to the new demands. Tory MP Sir
Nicholas Winterton told Mr Straw that MPs’
pay is 20% behind jobs used for official
comparison.
He said, “Will that encourage good,
competent, able, intelligent people to put their
name forward to come to be members of this
House?” In 2005 the 659 MPs claimed a
staggering £80 million. (Source: The Sun, May/06) |
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MPs
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MPs hard at work
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MPs worked
just 87 DAYS in 2003 under plans to
"modernise" Parliament. After a
three-week Christmas break they returned to the
Commons to knuckle down to a THREE-DAY week. They
also had a staggering 21 WEEKS holiday. MPs
agreed to end late-night sittings and give
themselves Fridays and Mondays off. They also
decided the Commons should close during school
half-terms so they can spend more time with their
kids.
Robin Cook said, "We shouldn't be frightened
from change by being in any way apologetic about
the hours we work. The move will bring the hours
of Parliament in line with real life." Euro
MPs are making MILLIONS in a flights and perks
rip-off. They're paying as little as £9.99 for
trips to Brussels on low-cost airline Ryanair,
but pocketing the full Club Class fare of £444
in expenses. And they even get 20% on top for
"extras" such as meals and taxis. |
Other EU-approved perks can push
their earnings to an amazing £250,000 a year, or £1.25
MILLION over a five-year parliamentary term. MEP Nigel
Farage admitted, "It's institutionalised corruption
and the EU is rotten to the core." British MEPs get
a basic salary of £55,000 but they can also expect
£22,100 a year in attendance fees, £27,000 in office
costs, £91,800 for staff, £52,000 in air fares and
£2,100 for additional travel. Mr Farage, of the UK
Independence Party, said he was so disgusted by the EU's
"freebie" culture he gave his air fare savings
to charity, and was fined £10,500 by bureaucrats for
"misusing" it. And Tory MEP Daniel Hannan said,
"I tried to claim the actual cost of my air fare and
was told I couldn't because the computers are set in a
certain way."
MPs' basic salaries have already shot up by
almost 30% since Tony Blair came to power, from £43,860
in 1997. Now a cross-party group of MPs is pressing for
Westminster to be brought in line with Brussels, where
British Euro-MPs are due for an increase to £72,000 in
2004.
WESTMINSTER
RATES
Basic Pay: £56,358. Staff allowance: £64,304-£74,958.
Office expenses: £18,799.
Daily allowance: None.
Housing allowance: £20,000.
Travel: First-class train or economy class flights to and
from constituency.
Tax perks: None.
TOTAL: £170,000
STRASBOURG
RATES
Basic Pay: £72,000. Staff allowance: £108,000.
Office expenses: £32,000.
Daily allowance: £185 - about £10,100 a year.
Housing allowance: Generous low-interest loans.
Travel: Business or first-class air fare to and from
constituency and meetings around Europe.
Tax perks: Special 28% Community rate.
TOTAL: £222,000
The rise is part of a move to a single rate for MEPs
across the EU and breaks the 24-year link which has until
now kept Westminster and Brussels on the same basic and
it will create a difference of a £170,000-a-year package
for a Westminster MP and £222,000 for Euro-MPs, who sit
in Strasbourg, France. That does not include hidden perks
for Euro-MPs such as generous housing allowances,
tax-free shopping, free taxis and a £185-a-day payment
just for turning up. One protesting MP, a former
Minister, said, "It is not a question of money, it
is the principle. To have MEPs paid more than us is
ridiculous and insulting."
MPs are claiming twice as much in expenses
for their second homes as most families spend on their
only home. Some 610 out of 659 MPs claimed Additional
Costs Allowance in 2004-05, and the average claim was
£17,852. Nearly 200 MPs claimed the maximum amount of
£20,902. Some MPs are believed to be using the mortgage
allowance to buy a third or fourth property, it is meant
to help them to pay for a home in their constituency.
David Blunkett, the former Work and Pensions Secretary,
claimed £75,363 for his second home in Sheffield, nearly
the maximum available over the period from 2001 to 2005.
Interest payments on his £10,000 mortgage, taken out in
March 1988, were £650 a year. His band B property would
be charged £988 in council tax; gas, water and
electricity bills would average at about £1,100. The
modest outgoings suggest a “black hole” of
£64,327, it has been claimed.
Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, has been accused of
claiming £72,000 to cover utility bills and interest
payments that she makes on her mortgage for her
constituency home near Bolton. John Prescott, the Deputy
Prime Minister, Geoff Hoon, Leader of the Commons, and
Margaret Beckett, the Environment Secretary, all live in
grace-and-favour apartments. Despite this, they have
claimed more than £60,000 of taxpayers’ money over
four years to furnish and pay interest on constituency
homes.
Norman Baker, a Liberal Democrat MP, has written to the
Senior Salaries Advisory Body demanding that it stop
ministers from claiming mortgage payments if they live in
free accommodation and that it halt payments to any MP
who has three or more properties. (Source: Times Online, Apr/06)
MPs are set to hand themselves a new
£160-a-day allowance just for turning up to work. The
tax-free attendance handout, which comes on top of a
£60,000 salary, would be paid to all MPs in a major
shake-up of their controversial expenses. The new
payment, designed to cover the cost of living in London,
is being considered by a committee set up by the Speaker.
It would replace the existing second homes allowance,
which has been heavily criticised for being too lax, but
critics said it would encourage a "turn up, sign in
and go home" culture because MPs would not have to
attend debates or vote to get the extra cash.
Plans for the new allowance follow a damning ruling by
the Information Tribunal last week, which will force MPs
to publish every receipt claimed for under their
£22,100-a-year Additional Cost Allowance, which is meant
to cover the cost of running their London homes. The
tribunal heard that lax rules allowed MPs to claim not
just for mortgage and utility bills but also for the
weekly food shop and even items such as ipods and fish
tanks. But one senior backbencher described the ruling as
an ìintolerable invasion of privacy. He said MPs were
"bracing themselves" for a tidal wave of bad
publicity when they are forced to publish details of how
they spend their second homes allowance.
A senior parliamentary source said the House of Commons
Commission had now appointed a barrister to advise on a
possible last-ditch appeal against the tribunalís ruling
in the High Court. But he said the ruling meant the
current second homes allowance was effectively
"dead". A committee appointed by the Speaker is
now considering two options to replace it, either rolling
it into basic pay or giving MPs a daily attendance
allowance. The new system, to be finalised before the
summer recess in July, will not require MPs to provide
receipts, making it impossible for the public to use the
Freedom of Information Act to discover how the cash is
spent.
Adding the allowance to pay would take an MP's salary to
more than £85,000, a rise of more than 30%, but a daily
allowance would allow them to keep the cash without a
headline-grabbing pay rise. No figure has been set for
the new allowance but it is likely to be modelled on the
£159.50-a-day "overnight subsistence" received
by unpaid members of the House of Lords. In a typical
parliamentary year of 150 sitting days an MP attending
every session would qualify for almost £24,000 on top of
their salary. The figure could be far higher in some
years. (Source: Sunday Express, Mar/08)
Plans have been put forward to create new
Commons committees with more staff, travel and
accommodation costs, as well as extra pay for an elite
group of MPs. This would result in some backbenchers
receiving a £13,000 salary increase. The package
includes a £1million network of eight new English
'regional committees' to oversee Labour's controversial
English regional development agencies.
Each would be made up of nine MPs, including a chairman
earning up to £13,713 on top of the normal MP's salary
of about £62,000. Commons Leader Harriet Harman also
proposes eight new 'grand committees' for the English
regions outside London, at a cost of more than £300,000.
The chairman of each would receive a pay-hike of up to
£5,200. Gordon Brown has specifically requested a new
'Speaker's Conference', costing an estimated £261,075
over the next two years, to try to increase election turn
out and regenerate public interest in politics. (Source: Sunday Mail, Nov/08)
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