IPSA’s proposed increase in MPs’ salary is another example of how it continues to undermine the standing of parliament whilst haemorrhaging taxpayers’ money on unnecessary backroom bureaucracy.
The weekend newspapers reported that the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) is thinking about raising MPs’ salaries. Whatever your view on the right level of pay for MPs, IPSA has not only failed to tackle the long-term problems of cost and reputation, but has failed to remove the issue from the province of political parties and leaders, as intended.
The evidence is clear. IPSA has created a system where more than 90 per cent of MPs are subsidising the work they do by paying for travel, accommodation, subsistence or office expenses which should be paid for by IPSA.
In my last survey I discovered that about 1 in 5 MPs are spending more than £20,000 a year of their own money to protect their reputations from the damage caused by IPSA’s ridiculously complicated and dangerous expenses machinery
After taking into account the time spent by MPs and their staff, it costs IPSA more than £10m a year to administrate the expenses of just 650 MPs — more than £6 million for IPSA’s day-to-day costs and a further £4 million for MPs and their staff members’ time.
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