New figures from the Taxpayers’ Alliance show the total taxpayer cost of MPs rose to £127.6 million in the 2019-20 financial year, up 6.46% on the same measurement from 2018-19. The average cost per MP is now £157,747, with averages expense claims of almost £7,000 for travel and food, and a further £718,733 being spent on hotel claims.

The biggest spender is Birmingham MP Roger Godsiff who cost the public £265,668 last year, somehow beating Speaker Lindsay Hoyle – who lives at the Palace – into second place. Kevin Barron takes third place with £257,351 before Scottish and Northern Irish MPs’ travel helps them take up the rest of the table. Both Godsiff and Barron stepped down in 2019 after decades as MPs, meaning massive redundancy pay-outs…

• Roger Godsiff, Birmingham Hall Green – £265,668
• Lindsay Hoyle, Chorley – £259,057
• Kevin Barron, Rother Valley – £257,351
• Lisa Cameron, East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow – £256,040
• Ian Paisley, North Antrim – £253,824
• Jim Shannon, Strangford – £252,298
• David Tredinnick, Bosworth – £247,197
• Brendan O’Hara, Argyll and Bute  – £245,708
• Chris Law, Dundee West – £245,133
• Ian Blackford, Ross, Skye and Lochaber – £243,275

Congratulations to new Liverpool MP Kim Johnson, who came in at least expensive MP with just £7,392 of costs in her first five months in the job. 

If readers find these figures hard to stomach, they should look away before next year’s come through. New IPSA schemes have been introduced for MPs and staff to support them during the pandemic, including paying for researchers’ home electricity costs, funding taxis to keep MPs off public transport, and boosting their credit card limits by thousands. An end to these pocket-lining schemes won’t come soon enough…