The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) announced MPs can this year claim back money spent food, decorations and non-alcoholic drinks for an “office festive event”. MPs can also claim for a party in their constituency if it is “within a parliamentary context”.
The move has been criticised by MPs from all sides of Parliament. Former Brexit secretary David Davis called the rules “bonkers”. Speaking to TalkTV Mr Davis said the expenses watchdog had “missed the mood of the age”.
Ipsa - the body responsible for paying MPs’ expenses - revealed the costs incurred by MPs rose to £138.6m last year, driven mostly by rising staff costs. The authority is funded by the Treasury, which is turn raises most of its funds through taxes. In its bulletin last week, Ipsa urged politicians to make sure get-togethers “represent value for money, especially in the current economic climate”. Parties cannot be used for self-promotion or party political reasons, under the new guidance.
The authority said it would also approve claims of money spent on sending cards to local residents. But MPs were explicitly told they cannot use their expenses for a festive or new year calendar, decorations outside their constituency offices, or spend taxpayers’ money on alcohol. Any Christmas cards claimed for must not be sent to “large groups or all constituents as there is a risk this may not represent value for money and could be considered self-promotional”. The Ipsa guidance said all claims for festive parties will published in the usual manner.
Labour frontbencher Jess Phillips - in a post on Twitter retweeted by Foreign Secretary James Cleverly - said Ipsa had been “irresponsible”.
“Just want to say no-one asked for this, no-one I know will use it,” she said. “The guidance wasn’t made by MPs and yet we will be pilloried for it. I think it’s really irresponsible to issue this guidance as if MPs have been clamouring for it when I’ve literally never heard anyone do that.”
I certainly don’t want to pay for a load of rich Tories knees ups, or for them to send out propaganda Christmas cards out of my taxes and I’m sure a lot people feel the same about all Parties and MPs
But just a word in the ear to those brave little MPs whinging and wringing their hands that it’s not their fault and they didn’t ask for this. ……
YOU DON’T HAVE TO CLAIM THE MONEY!
Just send a message out that there will be no Christmas party this year, or that you’ll be paying for it out of your own pocket or party funds
Excellent. I’ll make a few adjustments to my tax return to make sure I cover the cost of Christmas dinner, and the meals we go out to with friends during the festive season.
Edit- pretty simple to do (give or take a few pennies). If I spent eg £50 on a few drinks, a main course and a taxi, then all I need to do is declare my annual income to be £250 less than it actually is, so I won’t have to pay the 20% tax on it.
I spent most of my working life in the corporate party lark. £150 inc vat is the current tax free spend. I remember when it was £50 inc vat per head and punters spending more asking to be invoices for conferencing, team building or something.
Ah those were the days when tax avoidance was a healthy pastime.
All my employers in Australia did something if you worked Christmas or Boxing Day, when it was a public service it was just a Christmas meal but BHP was far more generous. Each division would have money to spend, there was always a slap up meal for shift workers on Christmas and Boxing Day (far more lavish than the State Government’s) but there would also be a BBQ meal on site for everybody and an evening out at one of the clubs where the booze was on BHP.
The BBQ was usually provided by this mob and ran over several days so everyone got a go:
A spokesman for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he wouldn’t be claiming for a party, and that MPs would have to “justify all spending to their constituents”.
Labour MPs have been told it would “clearly be inappropriate” for them to claim for Christmas parties at a time of rising living costs.
Liberal Democrat Chief Whip Wendy Chamberlain said none of her party’s MPs would be claiming, adding “in the middle of a cost of living crisis this is tone deaf from Ipsa”.
Ipsa’s chief executive Ian Todd said the body had “got the messaging wrong”. In a letter posted online, he added that some MPs had had to deal with “phone calls, e-mails and in some cases abuse as a result of our guidance”.
He added that afterwards he was contacted by numerous MPs, who “have made it clear to me that they have never made such claims in the past and have no intention of doing so in the future. I accept and respect that. We got the messaging wrong by allowing the impression to form that this is what MPs were wanting to do, rather than our interpretation of the discretion available under the existing rules. We are an independent body and we make our own decisions but occasionally, like everyone, we make mistakes. In issuing it we also failed to recognise the public mood at a time of severe economic and financial pressures. I am sorry for that.”
Sorry isn’t enough … he should fall on his sword …
