MPs are to be given an extra £10,000 for coronavirus home working expenses
MPs have been offered a lump sum of £10,000 each to help support them while they work from home during the coronavirus pandemic.
The extra budget can be used to buy equipment such as laptops and printers for MPs and their staff or to cover additional electricity, heating and phone bills. The funds come on top of the existing budget of around £26,000 a year per MP and will be available in March.
The bulletin is dated March 19, a day before a furlough scheme was announced for workers, and a week before a bailout was announced for the self-employed that will only arrive in June.
Many have asked why MPs are getting such a generous hand out when many around the nation are now relying Furlough payments to put food on the table.
David Vance the chief of Alt News Media wrote on Twitter: “Pathetic. Furlough them – 80% of salary up to £25k. We are all in it together, right????”
Pathetic. Furlough them – 80% of salary up to £25k. We are all in it together, right???? https://t.co/Kx9BwyfnxE
— David Vance (@DVATW) April 9, 2020
Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) told MPs the cash would give “the resources and flexibility to concentrate on your parliamentary duties and support your staff at this time.”
Sir Alistair Graham, a former chairman of the committee on standards in public life, told The Times: “It seems to me a very crude approach [from IPSA].
“I think the public may be slightly puzzled as to why what looks like a generous payment of this nature has been made without first doing a bit more research into what the actual costs are.”
Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, defended the payment and emphasised it was made by IPSA independently of the government.
He told LBC Radio: “The way you say it gives the impression it’s £10,000 coming into my pocket.
“IPSA… make disseminations about the resources needed to support our constituencies at a time when we are having huge amounts of casework.
“I’ve certainly got vast increase in the number of people that are contacting me with concerns around Coronavirus.”
Cabinet minister Mr Dowden said: “I believe that this money is being used to help ramp up the capacity of MPs to deal with it, but it’s not benefiting MP’s personally.
“It’s about ensuring they have the capacity to deal with these challenges.
“The government is doing a huge amount itself to support businesses, the tens of billions of pounds support going through in order to, we have loan schemes, we have the furlough schemes.”
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