Parliament blows £12k a week on traffic marshals

First there was talk of a medal; now MPs have had their pay bumped up to more than £86,000. And today Mr S can reveal the latest wheeze to bolster the image of parliament in the eyes of the public. For days now, Steerpike has heard complaint from Commons staff about the appearance of ‘useless’ traffic marshals on the estate in garish orange jackets ‘who stand around doing nothing all day’, according to one disgruntled researcher.

The staff have primarily been hired to station the road between Black Rod’s Gardens and New Palace Yard during the current building works, with a total of eleven dotted elsewhere across the estate –including a supervisor and two relief marshals. The total cost of this first XI of superintendents? A whopping £12,588 a week. That’s the annual equivalent of £654,576 – or £59,506 per person, more than the maximum amount permissible for hard-working Commons staff in the office of an MP.