Today New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Arden has announced that she and her government ministers will take 20% pay cuts in solidarity with much of her country due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Arden’s pay cut will last for six months, applying to her ministers and chief executives of government organisations. Opposition leader Simon Bridges has joined in too. Good.
Meanwhile in Britain, this month MPs are getting an inflation busting increase of 3.1% – taking their salaries from £79,468 to £81,932 a year, an increase of £2,464. This is on top of a well publicised and controversial £10,000 boost to their free fancy laptop funds, first reported by Guido. This puts their income in the top 2% of all earners. More than three times the earnings of a frontline nurse…
MPs’ out-of-touch pay rise comes in the same month that Rishi Sunak admitted that never mind getting 80% of their salary, furloughed employees may not get any money at all this month, as the Government bureaucracy is not yet in place to deliver it after 2 months. All in this together…
The House of Commons’ boost puts them even ahead of members of the House of Lords, almost all of whom have seen a lockdown induced income drop. As all but a handful of Peers only get paid by clocking in to work each day, none have been able to collect income in this way for a month. The only members of the Upper House currently being paid are the few salaried ministers and whips, along with three Lords officeholders. Guido understands that no Lords have, as of yet, applied for Universal Credit…
Tory MP Christopher Davies has got off with a £1,500 fine and 50 hours’ community service after admitting to submitting two false expense invoices. Davies escaped becoming the second MP to go to jail this year after Fiona Onasanya…
UPDATE: The Tories finally comment: “Chris Davies has been given a formal warning from the Chief Whip following today’s ruling. He has apologised and it is right that the people of Brecon and Radnorshire now get to have their say about whether they still support Mr Davies.”
Last night’s BBC documentary Meet the Lords saw Baroness D’Souza attend the unveiling of a portrait of herself costing a cool £12,000. Asked whether this was taxpayers’ money well spent, D’Souza said the media were correct to hold her to account but suggested they had not reported her spending accurately. For the sake of “accuracy“, here is the full litany of how D’Souza has spent your money:
- £12,000 on a portrait of herself which the Baroness described as “a really good painting”
- £4,000 on flowers
- £1,100 on a trip to the ballet
- £26,000 on a ten day trip to the Far East
- £738 to keep her car waiting outside Windsor Castle
- £270 to keep her car waiting during lunch with the Japanese Ambassador
- £230 to keep her car waiting during a trip to the opera
“One would require them to be accurate”…
Paul Flynn’s crackpot plan to abolish MPs’ expenses receipts has been met with the contempt it deserves. He is one of Corbyn’s top allies but even the Labour leader’s team are slapping down his ridiculous proposal. Flynn wants it so MPs don’t have to reveal what they’ve spent your money on. Under his opaque scheme, taxpayers would have been unaware that during the expenses scandal Flynn wrongly claimed over £2,000 in mortgage interest and had to pay it back. Nor would you have known that he blew £7,000 of your cash on a new kitchen. Or another £1,100 on new carpets. Or another £1,200 on decoration. Flynn wants it so MPs can claim expenses with impunity without filing receipts because it’s a “chore“. Clearly having two Shadow Cabinet jobs is too much of a strain on the old fool…
Labour have drawn up plans to end the requirement for MPs to provide receipts for expenses claims. The staggeringly opaque proposals have been made by Shadow Leader of the House Paul Flynn, who is responsible for his party’s policy on MPs’ expenses. Flynn admits his plan is “provocative“, but claims it is necessary to abolish the expenses watchdog and implement an unreceipted allowance for MPs, because filing expenses is a “chore“. The text of the plan, seen by Guido, states:
“A monthly 30 minute chore was complicated by IPSA into hours of tedious frustrating trawling through a bureaucratic morass of rules that are complex and tedious. IPSA robs MPs and our staff of much of their most precious possession – time. There is continuing resentment against unnecessary chores that diminish MPs ability to do their numberless essential tasks.”
Hundreds of thousands of workers across the country take the time to file expenses claims, but Flynn says that’s too much effort for MPs…
He argues the current system, which allows the public to hold MPs to account on each expenses claim they make, should be abolished and replaced by a new “automatic” allowance with no receipts and no transparency whatsoever:
“MPs would embrace a new system without claims or the expensive IPSA. It could be based on an allowance calculated on average expenses based on distance from Westminster and paid automatically.”
So he wants the taxpayer to write MPs a cheque for tens of thousands of pounds and never know how the money is spent. Opaque, unaccountable and ripe for corruption, this is Labour’s new policy on expenses…
UPDATE: A Labour spokesman says “What Paul Flynn has suggested is not Labour Party policy”. But as Shadow Leader of the House Flynn is responsible for their policy on MPs’ expenses…
Soapy hunk Johnny Mercer should have no problem getting social media followers. Those shower commercials should mean he has all the ingredients required for likes, follows, and re-tweets galore. Surprising then that this Tory totty has charged the taxpayer £2,500 on expenses for “professional services” on social media management. His Twitter following stands at a relatively modest 13,579 – fewer than many 2015 intake colleagues – and his Facebook page has a mere 3,708 likes. His YouTube channel has a paltry 33 subscribers and his last video had just three views. If Johnny wants to boost his following, selfies are probably a better approach…
