The new Speaker has let it be known that he will investigate the fact that MPs can claim the new £25 a day subsistence allowance without receipts. John Bercow will hold a meeting with the members estimate committee next week to raise the issue. “He is conscious of public concern,” says a spokeswoman.
This morning I suggested that the idea of MPs each claiming £9k from the subsidy seemed a tad far-fetched.
The MEC has gone through the books and says “fewer than half of members have so far claimed the subsistence allowance and of those that have claimed for the first quarter of this (financial) year the average claim amounts to 8 days a month.”
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey