What was Ipsa thinking? That’s the question MPs are asking today after it emerged that the parliamentary spending regulator has decided MPs can claim for their office Christmas parties on expenses. There’s never a good time to make that kind of decision, but particularly not when their constituents aren’t even turning their heating on or using their ovens.
Ipsa issued the guidance in one of its regular bulletins, telling members that they could claim for food, decorations and non-alcoholic drinks for an ‘office festive event’ but that it needed to ‘represent value for money, especially in the current climate’. I’ve spoken to Ipsa, and they say the guidance was issued in response to requests for clarification from MPs – though wouldn’t offer any detail on whether members were asking specifically about Christmas parties or more general festive spending. Either way, the reaction from MPs generally has been that none of them would use a taxpayer-funded budget for such an event and they would never have asked Ipsa to let them either.
A taxpayer-funded Christmas party would annoy people even in lean times
Ipsa performs a tricky role: it was set up to remove MPs from decisions about their pay and expenses after the 2009 scandal.
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