Buried amid the Autumn Statement, today reams of MP expenses data were published, which Guido spent the afternoon flicking through. Here are some of the biggest eyebrow-raisers…

• Five MPs spent nearly £1,000 on the spellchecker website Grammarly
  • Clive Lewis – £114.25
  • Drew Hendry – £110.01
  • Kate Osborne – £114.02
  • Stephen Farry – £110.01
  • Kate Griffith somehow managed to spend £475.41 on the subscription service
• Mel Stride spent £53.98 on an iPhone case
• Esther McVey spent £9.80 on “sweets as prizes for school visit in parliament”
• Meg Hillier spent £384 on photography
• Sir Robert Syms bought a thousand pound iPad
• Alan Campbell spent £13.11 on “long life milk”
• There appears to have been a vermin problem in three MPs’ offices:
  • Alison Thewlis spent £500 on a deep clean of her premises after a rat infestation
  • Bridget Phillipson spent £90 on vermin control
  • Lloyd Russel-Moyle spent £10.75 on fly papers to “deal with an office fly infestation”
• Anna McLoughlin spent £39.99 on a “sneeze screen in case team meet constituent exempt from wearing a mask”. It was purchased in March 2022…
• Anna McLoughlin also spent £89 to “provide drink water for staff without having a long walk to the nearest kitchen area”. How far away is her kitchen area?
• Barry Gardiner spent £1,155 on video editing
• Chris Pincher spent £960 at Westminster Digital videos
• Michael Fabricant spent £116.16 on a VPN so he could watch BBC News while abroad
• Claudia Webbe managed to spend £115.37 on a phone case
• David Davis expensed a £11.99 YouTube Premium subscription
• Douglas Chapman spent £5.25 on a “snack for a guest” in Portcullis House
• Grant Shapps spent £79.99 on Microsoft Office. Expensing his famous spreadsheet…
• Leo Docherty expensed £8.87 on a Ukrainian flag
• Luke Pollard purchased a £2,195 air-conditioning unit
• Matt Hancock expensed a £43.33 Times subscription, despite the fact MPs and staffers are all entitled to free subscriptions
• Tobias Ellwood used your tax money for a £7.99 Amazon Prime subscription

Perhaps doing penance for appalling behaviour in his private life, Imran Ahmed Khan actually repaid £1,438 for a Macbook he’d purchased. Recession? What recession…