The Demos MP Expenses Accumulator
by Peter Harrington
Parliamentarians are queuing up to pay back expenses. But amazingly, no-one has added up the total amount promised. Welcome to the Demos MP Expenses Accumulator!
The Inland Revenue assures us that they'll cash all the cheques, even if the money is not technically owing. Demos is going to keep a running tab of how much is being paid back. So far we're up to £111,020.70 and rising: please tweet or blog us any updates.
Of course, MPs aren't the only ones who can claim expenses. People reliant on benefits can claim, in dire circumstances, for certain items through the Social Fund. One of these is the Cold Weather payment, which pays out £8.50 a week when temperatures drop. According to our calculations, the money paid back so far would have funded 13,061 payments - or 91,428 days of cold weather support.
So the amount MPs have so far admitted they over-spent feathering their own nests could keep over 13,000 of their poorest constituents warm through a cold week (and there's almost definitely a lot more to come). But this is only one example of how the money might have been spent.
Should the IR pocket it or should we spend it on something else? It's our money - we should get to decide what to spend on. Tell us your idea below or through our Twitter feed... (#DemosAccumulator)
Here are the totals so far:
Labour:
Phil Hope - £41,709
Margret Moran - £22,500
Hazel Blears - £13,332
Ronnie Campbell - £6,200
Mark Lazarawicz - £2675
Jack Straw - £1500
Andy Burnham - £1000
Gordon Brown - £150
Labour total so far -£89,066
Tory:
Michael Gove - £7566.50
Alan Duncan - £4,704.86
Andrew Lansley - £2,641.70
Oliver Letwin - £2,145
David Cameron - £680
Ken Clarke - £600
George Osborne - £440.62
Stewart Jackson – £304.10
David Willetts - £115
Cheryl Gillan - £4.47 (dog food).
Tory total so far - £19,220.25.
Lib Dems
Ming Campbell - £1490.25
Julia Goldsworthy - £1005
Chris Huhne - £119
Nick Clegg - £80.20
Lembit Opik - £40
Lib Dem total so far: £2,734.45
Grand total so far – £111,020.70
Twitter us whenever you see a new promise and we'll post the next Total tomorrow evening!
Sources: BBC, Guardian, Politicshome, Daily Mail.
paul francis
The only way to clear this mess up is to allow the public to decide and therefore ALL MP's should now offer themselves for reselection by their local associations before the next election and given that an election could be called before next year the reselection should take place as soon as possible after the June 4 elections.
This way the Tory party could move forward into the General Election with a relatively clean sheet.
EdiLass
What about the total that isn't being paid back?
I used the Guardian spreadsheet to calculate the total claimed by all MPs for 07-08. The total I got was £92 million. Can this be right?
stefan
Jacqui Smith £157,610
Kyros
They should all be sacked EVERY one of them. Not one of them declared that the expenses could used in this way yet everyone of them must have known. Why didnt anyone of them say anything??
neverriak
How about a solid gold shovel for GB?