Daily Mail: MPs hand taxpayers £95m bill for expenses

MPs claimed inflation-busting expenses and allowances last year.

Commons accounts show that the taxpayer was hit with a bill of £95.48 million for MPs' expenses, travel, pensions, allowances and staffing costs in 2006/07, up from £90.475 million in the previous year.

This was a rise of £4.973 million, or 5.5 per cent.

The additional cost allowance, which MPs can put towards interest payments on a mortgage for a second home, rent or hotel bills, rose from £10.866 million to £11.447 million - an increase of 5.3 per cent.

Staffing allowances went up from £50.695 million to £53.274 million as MPs took on more office workers, a rise of £2.579 million, or 5.1 per cent.

Travel expenses rose from £5.994 million to £6.253 million, an extra £259,000 or 4.3 per cent The taxpayer contributed

£11.485 million for MPs' pensions last year, up from £10.172 million, a hike of 12.9 per cent.

Incidental expenses provisions, for office and constituency surgery costs, rose from £12.748 million to £12.989 million, a rise of 1.89 per cent.

MPs have also voted to give themselves a £10,000-a-year communications allowance from April this year, which critics have dubbed propaganda budgets. The rising bills were criticised by low-tax campaigners.

"It's completely out of order for MPs t o claim more and more expenses when people are suffering under the burden of higher taxes," said Matthew Elliott of The TaxPayers' Alliance.

"When members of the public are having to tighten their belts, Members of Parliament should not show contempt for taxpayers by receiving inflation-busting increases in expenses from the public purse.

"No wonder trust in politicians is at an all-time low if they're not fully committed to providing value for money."

The figures were published on the day that the Commons rises and MPs, who get a salary of £60,675, head off to their constituencies for the summer break. Sittings start again in October.

Commons Leader Harriet Harman today also received a report from the Senior Salaries Review Body on the future pay and allowances for MPs.

In the Government's submission to the review, ministers suggested that inner-London MPs could get a £20,000 boost to their homes allowance.

Other MPs have proposed that their salary should rise to between £70,000 and £100,000.

However, Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker said: "There is a review going on. It's important that we get value for money from MPs. But it is also important that MPs are not constrained in doing the job that they are elected to do."

Ministers spent almost half a million pounds more last year on official chauffeur-driven cars than the year before, other figures showed.

The Department for Transport admitted the Government racked up a bill of almost £6 million in 2006/7 compared with £5.5 million in 2005/6.