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By Andrew Sparrow, Political Correspondent (Filed: 28/10/2005)
MPs were paid more than £80 million to cover staffing costs and expenses last year, the House of Commons revealed yesterday.
The new statistics show that MPs claimed an average of £122,678, with Geraint Davies, the then Labour MP for Croydon Central, charging the most at £176,026. Geraint Davies, a Labour backbencher until he lost his Croydon Central seat in the election, received £176,026, more than £7,000 above the MP putting in the next highest claim. "I am glad I invested my time and energy and allowances in serving my constituency. It clearly seems to me that this shows I was one of the most hard-working MPs in Britain," he said. Mr Davies, who now runs his own travel firm, put his bill down to having a particularly large constituency. He also pointed out that the immigration centre in his constituency generated a huge postbag. He claimed £38,750 on postage, more than any other MP. Asked to justify the £20,000 he claimed for a second home in central London, despite the fact that his Croydon home is just half an hour from Westminster by public transport, he said he needed it because he worked long hours at the Commons. "I found myself working lots of late nights and early mornings and I could not claim for out-of-hours taxi fares," he said. At the bottom of the table were Terry Davis, who claimed £42,709 before resigning as Labour MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill during the year, and Iain Wright, who was elected as Labour MP for Hartlepool last autumn. The figures, which were first released when the Commons authorities realised they would have to publicise the payments under the Freedom of Information Act, also show that Sinn Fein's four MPs claimed almost £500,000 in parliamentary allowances, even though they have not taken their seats at Westminster. The party has office accommodation at Westminster but refuses to swear the oath of allegiance to the Queen needed to take their seats. All four MPs claimed at least £15,000 each towards the cost of a second home in London. A Sinn Fein spokesman said, "when we won the facilities at Westminster we always said we would use them for the benefit of our constituencies and to promote our aims of Irish freedom and unity. We made quite clear what we were going to do and we were elected on those pledges." Most of the money paid to MPs covers staffing and office costs. They could claim up to £77,534 to pay staff last year and another £19,325 to pay office costs such as accommodation. But in certain categories of expenses, there is no maximum that can be paid. Many of those claiming the most for travel were Scottish MPs, with Calum MacDonald, the then Labour MP for the Western Isles, topping the travel table with claims worth more than £44,000. Geraint Davies, the highest spender overall, also claimed most on postage, another area where spending is not capped. The total spending on postage was £2.5 million. The figures showed that Tony Blair claimed £93,996. MPs can claim up to £20,902 to help cover the costs of accommodation either in London or in their constituency and Mr Blair received £16,417 for accommodation, despite the fact that he has a grace-and-favour home. Commons officials said the total payments were 3.8 per cent higher than the year before largely because of increases in staff pay. The House of Lords also published figures showing how much peers were paid in expenses. Peers can claim for subsistence and overnight costs for the days they attend the House. Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate Durham, the former president of the Police Superintendents' Association, claimed the most. He attended the House on 152 days and claimed a total of £60,000. In total, peers claimed more than £13 million in expenses. |
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