In 2020-21 The Taxpayers alliance published a league table of MPs by how much in total it cost taxpayers to employ their staff, run their offices and pay the MP’s permitted travel and accommodation costs. The dearest MP claimed £280,000. The average MP claimed £203,000. I claimed £106,000 as the second lowest cost MP. My costs remained low by MP standards throughout the Parliament.
I always thought MPs should try to set an example and provide great service at sensible cost. During my time as an MP I saw allowances for staff and office costs go up a lot with many MPs expecting more staff to do things for them. I did my own research and made my own speeches. My two staff members helped me with constituency cases and keeping up with the voluminous email correspondence. I triaged cases and set out my views in response to new issues or problems. My staff took great trouble to follow up cases and seek a good outcome from public bodies for constituents. We set ourselves the target of replying by the next day to any email.
There was no pressure to contain costs or seek better value, until an MP approached the generous maximum allowed. IPSA did bring in rules about travel costs and provided standard form employment contracts for staff with salary bands. The only time I remember opposition parties taking an interest in my costs was to complain I did not claim enough of the allowances. They could not point to how the service I provided was inadequate owing to too few staff, as we clearly turned emails round much more promptly than the average MP and I delivered more campaigns and content through this website and frequent Parliamentary speeches than many MP s managed.
MP offices do offer better value and higher productivity than a lot of public sector administrative activity. That is the result of some cash limits for specified purposes on what an MP can spend. It also reflects the much closer scrutiny of detailed spending of these small offices compared to the disinterest in exposing waste and inappropriate spending in many government and local Council departments. It still leaves open the idea some have that they need to spend the full allowance, and can mean the MP does not do enough of the job for themselves. The more the MP does the better the MP usually is. There is nothing like reading all the emails and feedback and taking a personal interest in the cases where things are going wrong for people.
I am going to write a few blogs about getting better value from the public sector. I thought it provided a background to show that in my little bit of the public sector I was able to do what I preached, running my office for a little over half the average and for just over one third of the dearest. Most of the government departments I dealt with over the years did not manage the money and personnel well, and did not regard boosting productivity as a key objective.
I supported a Conservative policy of reducing from 650 to 600 MPs at the next boundary review, which the government then failed to implement. I proposed a 10% cut in Mp numbers down to 585, as I often represented a constituency that had considerably more constituents than the Parliamentary average without finding it difficult to give them a decent service. It would also be quite possible to cut the maximum allowance total by 25% and still allow an MP to spend 50% more than I did.
August 11, 2024
This is impressive and sets an example of what MPs should aim to achieve. Moreover if Government departments could emulate this efficiency, the number of frustrated and desperate constituents would dwindle back to what it was when British people were, by in large, a contented nation.
For instance for 9 years I have been trying to get a commercial neighbour who has 13 bins on the Highway permanently, to comply with the law and remove them from the Highway. I have written and complained to 3 successive MPs because the Council refuses to implement the law. This is such a tiny, simply fixed issue. Should have been 2 letters, but instead I’m now into the third box file and still no solution.
This is a waste of MPs time. There must be a better way of forcing compliance with the law.
August 11, 2024
Have you tried cultivating a local councillor? ( Big elections in May 25)
With a view to leaning on environmental health chaps.
August 11, 2024
Yes I have had 2 councillors working with me throughout. One was head of some committee and proposed building a bin store on the side of the centre where the illegal bins were, she had the money to proceed. The Blob refused.
This is just an example of the silly things that we have to waste our time on. There was a fire in a big bun, it melted the gutter, had a vehicle been in the loading zone (the bins are in a loading zone) there could have been serious damage. The bins are not insured in their current location.
Why are we having yo bother MPs with silly little things like this?
There should be a means of sacking any official who does not implement the law without further ado.
August 11, 2024
Covering up Churchill urinal in Chancellor’s office would cost £8k
16 hours ago — Rachel Reeves has been told it would cost £8000 to cover up a urinal used by Winston Churchill in her private Treasury bathroom. As a new Chancellor and the economy is such a mess she has very odd priorities.
I am happy to pop round with some white plastic sheet, some scissors and some sticky tape Rachel free of charge. But to really save £ trillions scrap zero, scrap Non Dom abolition, scrap VAT on private school, scrap more employment laws, scrap renewable subsidies, scrap loans for worthless degree (~ 75% or so are), scrap COP conferences, stop all Covid Vaccines, stop Two Tier Kier pouring petrol on the flames of the riots by calling 80% of the population who want rather less low skilled immigration “far right”, stop funding nearly all international organisations and Quangos, stop blocking the roads, cut train susidies… so very much waste everywhere you care to look.
August 11, 2024
“Schools to wage war on ‘putrid’ fake news
Pupils will be taught to spot conspiracy theories in curriculum revamp after riots”
Some fake news from Government and the BBC for them to try to spot:-
Lockdowns saved net lives during Covid, the Covid Vaccines were unequivocally safe, people concerned about low skilled immigration levels are far right and racist, big government help the economy grow, Covid came from the wet markets and was not enhanced in a lab by gain of function experiments, the Covid vaccines saves millions of lives, socialist policies make any sense, Net Zero is a sensible policy, VAT on schools will raise net money, Abolition of Non Dom status will raise net money, their is no blatant two tier policing, taxation about 25% of GDP helps the economy, hate laws are not two tier kier justice, positive discrimination is a no discrimination usually against white men, all the climate alarmist propaganda in the exam syllabus…
August 11, 2024
Some more – Only white people can be racist, walking and cycling cause no CO2 direct or indirect (as claimed on Gov. web sites), landlords are evil as is claimed all over the place, diversity recruitment is good for efficiency, the BBC is fair and balanced and a source of truth, asking men if they are pregnant in the NHS is a great plan as is Stasi Starmer’s war on free speech…
August 11, 2024
Actually stating as a fact that some man died not knowing he was pregnant is counted as ‘truth’. I’ll give you chaps a tip: any doctor who asks if you are pregnant is not fit to treat you for anything at all. Run!
I’m afraid this is really padded cell time.
August 11, 2024
Surely the Urinal can be cleaned, turned off and used as an extra artistic designer shelf for spare loo rolls and her make up, hair spray & toiletries – just use some imagination Rachael. Better still do something to get some economic growth ignore it and read some Hayek, Milton Freedman and small government real economics…then start cutting government by about 50%. At least 50% of it does nothing useful or does net harm.
August 11, 2024
Surely it is Fixture and Fittings, not hers to do whatever she wants, she is a temporary (like rental) resident and hopefully very short-term.
August 11, 2024
Lifelogic
£8,000 Makes you wonder what they were going to cover it with, Gold Leaf ?
Surely all it needs is a few lengths of timber and some plasterboard, but then I guess the wallpaper may be the real cost factor.
Why is it everything Politicians want to do costs us Huge sums of money.
August 11, 2024
Well done Sir John Redwood. You are a conviction politician and they are not usually in it for what they can get out of it. Corbyn apparently had no interest in expenses, fine dining etc. So it can apply to politicians from all parties.
Unfortunately, we now have too many careerists and chancers who want to profit from their position and maybe move on to more lucrative roles if they arise.
On other matters I note in the Times that they are looking to jail rioters for ten years. Tough talking rather addressing issues that cause the trouble.
At Lords at the moment waiting for the match to start. A lovely day and a break from all the bad news.
August 11, 2024
A criminal record, prison for 1 year, 6 months in reality, and a fine consistent with any damage proven.
Thats enough for me.
August 11, 2024
The public sector are the only industry that is protected to some degree from the precept of “no free lunch” .. but only to some degree.
At some point people will notice the crap level of service from those extracting and wasting huge amounts of money from them – and react. Clearly you were shaming the opposition parties by highlighting their profligacy through contrast with your own good management.
August 11, 2024
So much of the service they provided does net harm anyway. Road blocking, Covid Vaccines, Lockdowns, Net zero…
August 11, 2024
Good morning.
Well they would do, you were making them all look bad.
I think our kind host highlights something in politics that can be applied very much elsewhere. That is, you are not going to get the best people doing the most important jobs with, one of those jobs being to protect the public purse. Had we a Legislature doing just that and holding the Executive to account then we would not be in the mess we are.
August 11, 2024
Very difficult to comment on except in general terms. If your customers (constituents) were happy with the results they got at the sum it cost then you were supplying a cost effective service. Considering the number of times you were returned to represent them in Parliament they must have been satisfied customers.
Often in large organisations a newly appointed manager will as a first task do everthing possible to enhance the perceived importance of his/her position. Usually by increasing the size by numbers of employees, in the department. Perhaps at times necessarily, but too often not. The proliferation both public and private of equalities none jobs is a classic current example. Not running a tight ship in private industry banckrupts the enterprise. In public organisation it banckrupts or impoverishes the taxpayer. Sufficiently distant for it not to concern the public sector manager.
Having been prominent in both sectors, private and public, you are uniquely placed and experienced to know how to control and incentivise the public sector to greater productivity. Your stance on expenses was it seems based on integority, others less so. So how would you reorganise and motivate a public sector to produce much greater productivity.
You could take a lesson from japanese management. In their private sector the directors, whatever their ultimate responsibilities, have normally got where they are from a career starting on the shop floor and progressing on merit upwards through the organisation. They gain great insight in their career.
Then the workforce are incentivised to suggest improvements. Apart from the company benefiting from their hands on daily experience, they feel involved. They have a stake in the success of the whole. Result, japanese cars top the reliability charts. Ultimate result, I the customer have not bought anything other than japanese cars since 1992, and fhey have never disappointed.
So lets have your business plan for the public sector. Re-establishing loyalty, integrity, and a chain of command might be a useful first step, along with the elimination of most of those responsibility offloads, better known as quangos.
August 11, 2024
The expenses scandal, exposed by the Daily Telegraph some years ago, exposed the venality of many MPs when it came to claiming expenses. Is there a limit on their office expenses or is GBP 280,000 the tops? As the saying goes “Power corrupts”.
Reply Yes there are cash limits on the main budget heads, especially staff which is the dominant cost.
August 11, 2024
Ah yes! happy memories of bath plugs and duck houses.
August 11, 2024
A junior doctor starts on about £26,000 take home less £7,000 interest, £12,000 rent on a basic room in London, £5k on tube fares, council tax, utilities…leaves £40 a week for food, lunches, fun. My son has also just had a bill for £500 for an exam he needs, this is not paid by the NHS and has comp. professions fees too.
Meanwhile in the Lords they get a £361 as a tax free daily allowance just for signing in. Still we are all in it together as they endlessly like to lie!
August 11, 2024
Am I expected to subsidised him and the NHS until I die? Seems so. Meanwhile lawyers and bankers on more than three times this figure.
August 11, 2024
18 year olds applying to study medicine down 12% in two years it seems. Hardly surprising they are treated very badly by the NHS, incur about £100k of student debt and 5 or 6 years and are not then even paid enough to live on – certainly not in London. Let alone enough ever repay the debt and ever buy a house. Something only for people with rich parents or a rich partner and not too interested in living standards.
August 11, 2024
It would be very interesting to do a review of applicants, who wish to train to be a GP, of the income level of both of their parents (even if separated). The young lady I know training to be a doctor has two parents who are doctors, two other young men I know that trained to be doctors had professional parents. I’d genuinely like to know what % of the trainees parents are hairdressers, cleaners and minimum wage level jobs.
August 11, 2024
I know of 4 MPs who represented constituencies close to each other. They all bought the same make and model of car, and they took it in turns to drive the others to and from the House to their constituencies. They all claimed the transport costs for each journey.
August 11, 2024
Good Moring,
One way to get better value for money from MP’s, and particularly ministers, would be for the Speaker to require the minister being asked a question, to actually answer the question posed, and not let the minister rest until he/she had done so.
Not answering a question should result in ‘contempt of Parliament’ charge, possible punishment being loss of seat.
August 11, 2024
+1 and the same for obfuscating in written answers.
August 11, 2024
One thing that brings MPs into disrepute is that some of them use their staff allowance to employ their spouse, offspring, or other family members. Hard to think of another public sector profession where that practice is common.
August 11, 2024
Oh I am sure they were all selected very honestly, on pure merit and after proper interview and recruitment process! Surely you are not that cynical that you do not trust these MPs are you? So much of government is surely driven crony capitalism, buying votes with public money or blatant fraud. See HS2, net zero, test and trace, PPE procurement, the Covid vaccine approvals, VAT on school fees…
August 11, 2024
What other likely explanations they surely cannot be that daft can they?
August 11, 2024
I don’t have a problem with this Roy. There are plenty of husband and wife teams in businesses up and down the Country, often building successful enterprises and employing plenty of other people. It is hard to find someone more trustworthy at the top level than your spouse.
You should get the statistics on how many fire officers have children/nephews/nieces in the same service. Same for Police officers I think you’d be surprised. Same for nursing. I know several nurses whose children are nurses now. Lots of MPs are siblings, sons and daughters of other MPs.
August 11, 2024
Do you still have working connections with the HoC?
This sounds like my work which many don’t believe that I personally do all of it.On the premise of their disbelief the NHS has given extra funding for piecemeal interventions.
Our age group were encouraged to be professional and take all round responsibility for work matters,but the concept of professional now is to management like ,delegate anything other than the thought processes behind the work. The problem with this is that I can’t work for them whilst in disagreement.I work for the patient.This has always been so.The noveau pseudo professionals get accepted due to the paper qualifications and not their ability They get put on a pedestal even when they are wrong.If this group behaved like all round practitioners,they would learn a lot more about all processes, what works and what doesn’t instead of leaving it to others to correct their mistakes.
Another example of this is lawyers who have staff to do mountains of research,put cases together so that when the solicitor intervenes it is purely copycat law.
August 11, 2024
Good Morning Sir John.
Much food for thought in there.
I can confirm your office and yourself always answered emails very fully and quickly.
When I’ve contacted you in the past, my queries were dealt with very efficiently and fully.
It surprised me to hear you only had two members of staff. I was also impressed that you were one of the lowest spending MPs in Parliament.
And to think, that you managed all this as just “A Part Time MP” according to the record paper recycling producer, now FibDem MP, Clive Jones.
August 11, 2024
Cliff
Agree on the few times I contacted JR over the decades he was my MP I always got a helpful response within hours, either from himself, or one of his knowledgeable staff.
A follow up a few days later to make sure the problem was resolved was a nice courtesy touch, but a welcome and pleasant surprise.
Thanks for your service over the years Sir John.
It will be interesting to see how our new Member of Parliament performs.
August 11, 2024
JR is a great loss. Racheal Reeves should (very secretly) run all her (bonkers) economic plans past JR and take his wise advice as to why they are bonkers. Advice that had it been taken over the years by the Tories would have saved the country £ trillions. Just the ERM and Energy Policies alone would have saved many £billions. We now suffer Stazi anti-free speech Starmer as a direct result of the failure of Cameron, May, Boris, Sunak to follow a sensible JR type of plan.
August 11, 2024
There’s a cartoon going around the Internet showing Reeves jeeping her enormous second home fuel allowance on a ministerial salary of circle £200k and stopping pensioners wfa on £12 k
Says it all really
August 11, 2024
Oh my!
Don’t share it whatever you do!!
Is it hurty?😳
August 11, 2024
Indeed. Plus heated hotels and spending money for boat arrivals paid for by taxes on people who cannot even afford to keep warm themselves.
August 11, 2024
Oh gosh!
I thought for a moment this was going to be about rooms with leather chairs and desks!
(Half asleep and dim with terror at the political goings on)
Would it be easier if there was a flat allowance? So MPs had to budget?
A better plan for a socialist regime surely?
Mind you I had a look at some financial disclosures.
Talk about NZ perks!
August 11, 2024
I’d like to see the level of claims for Accommodation and Travel separately. Those who have to travel significant distances are clearly going to be more expensive, on both counts.
August 11, 2024
It would be helpful if you considered, Sir John, why previous reviews of public sector productivity have so blatantly failed. Philip Hammond in 2017, George Osborne a few years earlier, Sir Philip Green’s review set up by Cameron in 2010, and an even earlier one under Labour in 2003. Yet here you are 20 years later calling for an efficiency drive in the public sector which has yet to happen, apparently. Why can’t it be properly carried out? Your post points us towards answer. You actually wanted to keep your MP office costs low, you didn’t spend out on high-price but unreliable IT systems, and you didn’t hire expensive consultants or agency workers. Your MP’s office coped with around a 15% increase in your constituency population between 2011 and 2021 alone, without employing more staff, as I understand. You got that productivity increase because your staff were dedicated to their work, perhaps because of a personal political commitment. You weren’t short of money to pay them, according to what you say about an underspend on your MP’s allowance. And you didn’t have to deal with endless government initiatives to make you change your way of working. Put all these things together, and it’s clear that the public sector is a very different beast from a comparatively small operation involving an MP and a couple of staff.
August 11, 2024
If only they were all like JR!
It has cost us a great deal to employ/fund people to virtually bankrupt us.
Pre election manifestos should be watertight legally binding so at least we can be sure that the money (expenses and salaries) is used to do what the electorate wants and expects.
August 11, 2024
It is a fact that the larger the organisation, the more waste and inefficiency. Many who started their careers in manufacturing will recall the yield loss issue – where the company would buy in raw materials for conversion to added value products, only to find that a significant amount would be lost due to problems with badly maintained machines breaking down, intermediate losses due to bad handling or transport damage because of poor packaging – and customer rejects for out of specification
Many Japanese and American companies solved these problems by investing in automated production lines, implementing well thought out quality management systems to make sure of less rejects requiring re-work.
Today British manufacturing is experiencing somewhat of a renaissance. The latest manufacturing statistics for 2023 show a significant jump in output to £224 billion, the UK has climbed from 9th to 8th place in the global manufacturing rankings, cementing our role as a key player. (Source: makeuk . org)
If there is one thing that the new Labour government could do to reduce the extraordinary high level of the national debt, it should be to support British manufacturers with tax breaks for capital investment – and to expand the government’s Export Credit Agency to support exporters
Reply The government is working hard to shut down much of our manufacturing, get us out of new steel making, slimming down shipbuilding, banning petrol and diesel car making from 2030 and giving us very high energy prices to deter industry
August 11, 2024
Being a Member of Parliament is one of the highest honours a British individual can have. One would think they would all want to respect their office by being resourceful. I do not understand why such a large range of expenses is even permitted by IPSA. Permitting it wastes public resources, sets a poor example throughout the country and is not fair on the hard working, decent MPs.
August 11, 2024
I very much doubt that many MPs went into Parliament seeking to provide “value for money” for taxpayers, either through their own Office; by seeking it in the Civil Service they rely on, or in the wider public sector.
It’s only taxpayers’ money and they have far “more important” things to promote like Net Zero and various social engineering projects …. as well as their own financial interests.
There will be no efficiency savings in Parliament because those who are there and have the power to do it don’t want to. MPs won’t because they’re the ones benefiting. The House of Frauds will resist, because turkeys don’t vote for Christmas.
August 11, 2024
John can you please take a look at this HMRC FOI data on recent migrant wages.
2.6 million of the last 2.8 million jobs created have gone to migrants.
I don’t normally post links but this is hard to get HMRC data.
https://x.com/neildotobrien/status/1821215165569732694?s=46
August 11, 2024
Average starting pay or annual income or period of employment would be revealing.
All low pay, zero hours, minimum wage and able to seek benefits?
August 11, 2024
Some useful information and views I had not seen before. Thank you.
August 11, 2024
Anyone who has worked in or with both the public sector and large companies will know the shamefully entitled way the former treat other people’s money.
Budgets have to spent up to the last penny and they are pathologically wedded, as are politicians, that performance improvements can only be achieved by more and then more money.
No sanction for waste, poor outputs or failures so no reason to change. I believe the PS in the Home Office got a performance bonus of £35k despite utter failure on all aspects of migration etc. how does that work. I’ll tell. You scratch my back and I will scratch yours and we will all keep quiet.
Many MPs have their snouts in the trough, freebies, exotic trips and if they lick the right backsides can expect, honours and highly paid boardroom positions when they leave. All legal of course but an abuse of their position.
As for donors, contribute to the Tory party, ‘buy’ your way into the Lords, big big business, instant access to ministers, seats on advisory committees, Unions to Labour similar and buy increased power.
All animals are equal, some are more equal than others.
Democracy. It’s a joke. Public service. An oxymoron.
August 11, 2024
Candidates for election should publish a contract stating how much it will cost the constituency for their service as MP. The constituency can then decide whether they are getting value for money. “None of the above” features on the ballot slip, and if elected, all the candidates have to stand down and a new election is declared. The constituency can decide whether they want to pay the price offered or go without representation in parliament.
Candidates will have to get to grips with financial management, which should weed out a lot of arithmetically challenged individuals.
August 11, 2024
As with the public sector, there is no incentive to save money and be more efficient. It is the opposite. In the Civil Service, we used to call these managers empire builders. The more staff they could employ and the more money they could spend, the more impressive they looked. This led to them being promoted in the pyramid system. When a general mandate to cut costs came they could easily accommodate it, whereas the cost-efficient manager couldn’t. Maybe each MP should get a set amount and then allow them to spend the excess on good causes in their constituency.
August 11, 2024
Make no mistake, high spending, necessitating wasteful spending to achieve it, by national or local governments is intentional. It is to increase public employment and control whilst sabotaging the private sector and the wealth of the nation.
The CAGW lie and its Net Zero “solution” is a perfect vehicle for high wasteful spending. It even includes plans for removing the CO2 from the atmosphere emitted by China. Ed Miliband’s renewable CfD contracts will be the equivalent of Gordon Brown’s rip off PFI contracts. Nuclear is already the cheapest form of low CO2 emitting power and will become even cheaper in the next decade.
It is time we had a referendum on Net Zero.
August 11, 2024
I cannot understand why we accept the bloated House of Lords. Stuffed with many failed politicians. 800 or so members at the moment paid a ridiculous £340 a day for a good kip on a comfortable leather bench before heading off to their subsidised everything and probably a taxi home on expenses.
Surely this cannot go on unchallenged. Not forgetting Two Jags who spent his political career advocating the abolition of the upper house, until he was given a peerage. Then with sudden amnesia, found himself licking the plate of opulence clean. At the taxpayers expense.
August 11, 2024
To balance the House of Lords Appointments Committee, there should be a House of Lords Dis-appointments Committee.
Delinquent members can then be removed, as well as those in surplus because they were put there for political advantage.
August 11, 2024
its about time they where elected, maybe along county lines
August 11, 2024
BW – ….and the bloated HoC!!! 650 of them and what do they do. Career politicians one and all with their snouts in trough. Just ask yourself, anybody, what has your MP done for you or your constituency – NOTHING.
August 11, 2024
Why is Elon Musk doing a better job of opposition to the UK government than the Conservative party?
August 11, 2024
Because he can afford to get a good legal representative perhaps.
Instead he has put a target on his back to get him shut down.
August 12, 2024
Conservative MP’s have parliamentary privilege, they can say what they want without fear of legal action.
They are not even doing the basics of standing up for free speech.
August 11, 2024
More brains in his little finger than the whole bunch of them in total?
August 11, 2024
I would suggest that the Conservative Party applies Napoleon Bonaparte’s military strategy to never interrupt an enemy when they’re making a mistake.
August 11, 2024
John, you were a different class to most MPs and most people that I know that work in the public sector say its best just to go with the flow of the others (perks, time off habits, etc.) or you can be ostracised for showing them up.
August 11, 2024
An MPs office should be allocated within a council building, fully funded, resourced and staff by local government employees
August 11, 2024
@glen cullen
I know it could be done but what do you expect the response time to requests and enquiries would be ?
Would it be within a Parliament.
August 13, 2024
Are you kidding, Glen? I can’t think of anything worse. If I became an MP, I’d want my own choice to create a loyal team of people who had my back in the local community and a profound love of the local area.
How could a new MP of a different party trust local government employees? We’ve seen what happens with Sue Gray and others with loyalties to another party.
August 11, 2024
Today the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) says that ‘right-wing violence is usually classified as thuggery by politicians, prosecutors and security services whereas equivalent acts by islamists would swiftly be labelled as terrorism’.
It would seem that the so-called two-tier response is not really what it was claimed to be.
August 12, 2024
I’m aghast.
The country is finished. Why does this site even exist anymore ?
August 12, 2024
It would be difficult to argue that you did not provide a quick and efficient service at minimal cost, and at the same time as you were running this excellent online diary, moderated by you alone !
Why do some MPs charge so much and what did their constituents get that you did not provide? I suspect they gained nothing for at least double the expenses you incurred.
August 12, 2024
It would be interesting to see what expenses were incurred by Scottish and Welsh MPs who are essentially duplicating the services provided by MSPs and MSs.
In Scotland each constituent is represented by an MP and eight MSPs and in Wales it’s an MP plus five MSs ! Such ludicrous duplication, all paid for by English Taxpayers !