The most expensive MP in Kent for the first ten months of the financial year April 2017 – Jan 2018 is Charlie Elphicke MP of Dover. In second place is our own Damian Collins MP, with recently elected Rosie Duffield MP Canterbury in third place, according to data released by IPSA. As an aside some MP’s believe IPSA stands for I’m Paid Sod All.
Gold Silver Bronze
To put this into context Charlie Elphicke is the 90th most expensive MP in parliament, for the first ten months of the financial year 2017/18. Damian Collins MP is 98th and Rosie Duffield MP is the 164th most expensive MP.
The expenses set out above are to cover the costs of running the MP’s office, employing staff, having somewhere to live in London and in their constituency, and travelling between Parliament and their constituency. It does NOT include their salary or extra monies they may receive as being chair of a committee. Damian is Chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee. Damian and his committee recently spent £84,000 on going to the USA to research fake news.
The basic annual salary for an MP for the financial year 1 April 2018/19 is £77,379. In 17/18 an MP’s basic salary was £76,011 and in 16/17 it was £74,962. MP’s salaries have risen by a total of 17.7 per cent since the introduction of the Government’s austerity programme, including public sector pay freezes and caps, in 2010. How much has your salary risen in this time?
Now something to lighten Damian’s heart is that he is the second lowest Kent MP claiming for Stationery during the financial year 2016/17 according to IPSA’s data.
So with IPSA yet to release the rest of the data for the financial year 17/18 our Damo is hanging on in second place. Will he improve on his third place for 16/17 or will he once again be Kent’s most expensive MP. Only time will tell.
