Crackdown on MP expenditures
New amendments have been made to the expenses regime for MPs, meaning that any MPs who stand down at election will automatically lose their £60,000 resettlement grant.
By removing the financial incentive to stay until a general election, this creates numerous hardships for future party leaders who do not wish to run for election until a later date. This could potentially and quite likely mean that more MPs will be standing down in the middle of a Parliament.
Sir Christopher Kelly, chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life has struck up arguments in Government by introducing not only this, but a myriad of other amendments, aimed at creating a fairer wage and less scope for MPs to overindulge when claiming expenses.
Defeated incumbents will still be liable to claim a grant worth £32,383 to £64,766, but it is appears that this will soon be changed again so that they only receive a couple of months’ salary in its’ place.
Another expense cut will soon be put into effect with the abolition of the £10,400 communications allowance, used to support MPs’ efforts to promote their work through advertising.
Other reforms in the shape of fixed work hours may soon be put into effect, pushing them into step with more traditional careers, as it appears many of the MPs extensive allowances stem from unusual or impractical office hours.
Possibly the most contested of Sir Kelly’s proposals is a reform that refuses second-home payments to MPs whose local railway station is within 60 minutes travel from Westminster.
In response to this, a Downing Street spokesman said “The Parliamentary Standards Act provides that the IPSA must consult MPs when drawing up the expenses regime, but not seek their final approval”.
By Ryan Brailsford
This article is rewritten from Sam Coates’ “MPs to lose £60,000 payoffs in expenses crackdown” article printed in ‘The Times’ 29/10/09
