MPs' costs reach half-a-million

Commons leader Jack Straw has revealed that the combined costs of running the Commons and paying MPs' salaries and allowances was £331.4m in 2004/5.

That averages at £500,000 for each MP - up £30,000 on the previous two years.

Since then the number of MPs has fallen from 659 to 646. It will not be clear whether this has cut costs until the next accounts later this year.

Good value?

Details of the costs emerged in a written answer from Mr Straw to Tory MP David Amess.

It shows the costs rising from £443,000 per MP in 2001/2 to £470,000 in the following two years and then to £500,000 in the latest set of accounts.

Administration costs make up 57% of the bill met by the taxpayer, with MPs salaries, office allowances and expenses accounting for 43%.

The Commons authorities say there are no comparable figures for earlier years because the accounting system changed.

Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker said he was sympathetic if MPs called for extra costs needed to run their offices.

But he is calling for curbs on accommodation expenses being used to allow some MPs to remortgage second homes outside London.

"We need to set out really what we expect from our MPs and cost that properly," he told the BBC News website.

Fairness

Mr Baker added: "If you look at how much MPs in this country get compared to abroad in other European countries and representatives in the US, we compare very favourably.

"But that's not to say there is not abuse in the system."

For the Conservatives, shadow Commons leader Oliver Heald said there was scope for reducing the costs.

He said: "Conservatives suggested at the last election reducing the number of MPs in the House of Commons, at the same time as ending the disparities in the size of parliamentary constituencies, so that each elector across the country has the same level of parliamentary representation."

The Tories' democracy task force, headed by former Chancellor Ken Clarke, was examining such issues to ensure the fairest system, he added.

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