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16
Nov 2001 |
People
in other trades and jobs...can go down the road and get a job somewhere
else. An MP cannot do that. It is four years before
he gets another chance, and then he may have to move house. Joe Ashton on the hardships of being an MP: 2 May 2001 |
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If
someone has been the MP for a small town...to go for a job on
offer at the Benefits Agency is tremendously embarrassing and
demeaning |
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So what do Westminster MPs get paid? £49,822 per annum basic. If they represent Inner London constituencies, they get an extra £1,507 London allowance, while others get an extra £13,628 for the expense of overnight stays in London. Run that last bit past me again? If you're in Inner London, you get an extra £1,507. If you're not in Inner London, you get an extra £13,628. What's so difficult about that? I'll have to think about that one. They do deserve it, though. It's a demanding, full-time job. Not necessarily full-time. Many MP's take other jobs, such as part-time directorships. It enables them to keep in touch with the world outside Westminster. Wouldn't they learn more just working in a pub at weekends? No they wouldn't, and this has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that part-time bar staff don't get paid £50k for putting their names on companies' letterheads and attending a meeting once a month. Would I suggest anything like that? Anyway, is it expensive being an MP? They're helped to a small extent by the £52,760 Office Costs Allowance they get to run their offices in Parliament (and of course stationery, phone calls and postage are all free). Some MP's get more: David Blunkett, for example, gets £136,000 Office Costs Allowance because of the extra difficulties caused by his blindness, and a handful of other MPs also get more than the normal £53k. All that travelling, though. Must cost them a bit. Not as much as you might imagine. In fact nothing, come to think of it. All MPs have Travel Warrants enabling them to travel free by rail, sea or air between their homes, constituencies and London. Their families too (spouse and kids) can make 15 return journeys to London each year to see Mum or Dad. Office staff have similar concessions. It all helps. What about driving? A mileage allowance of 53.7p per mile for the first 20,000 miles, and a miserly 24.8p thereafter. If they claim more than 25,000 miles they have to produce evidence. Another regulation... Hold it! Did you just say they could claim 25,000 miles without any receipts or other evidence? Yes, that's right. But surely you're not suggesting... And exactly how many MPs claim 25,000 miles every year? These figures are not available, but when Michael Heseltine's finances were quite unnecessarily being investigated a few years ago, he seemed to suggest at one point that 25,000 miles a year was a figure not unknown to the Commons Accounts Department, even in the returns of MPs who live within walking distance of Parliament. But strike me dead with a Parking Ticket if I were ever even to think... Yes, quite. How about pensions, then? None at all I suppose. The debate about the difficulties faced by MPs [see Joe Ashton quotes: top of page ] should bring home to us all the sacrifices politicians make for us. MPs pay 6% of their salaries into a pension fund. It used to be 9%, but in 1991 they voted to keep the benefits but reduce the contributions... I wish I had a job like that! How did they manage that? You're rather slow, aren't you? They're the House of Commons, and in the national interest they can do as they see fit. I remember that day well, Government and Opposition benches uniting as never before in the fight against poverty... Yeah, right. So what do they actually get? Depending on length of service, an MP who leaves the House, whether through choice or electoral defeat, gets a minimum Resettlement Grant of 6 months' salary (£25k) and a maximum of 1 year's salary. This is payable even if resettlement means nothing more than toddling through to the House of Lords the next day. Also a pension of 1/50 annual salary per year of service. Resettlement Grant? Even if they've just been in the job 5 minutes? Yes, but these are the very people that need our sympathy. Let's go back to the debate in May:
How heart-rending.
I suppose it's balanced by success, though?
So all this electioneering
guff about wanting to represent the people of Midtownshire...?
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