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Average MP now costs £158,000 per year
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The release of new figures on MPs' expenses sparked intense debate this week. Following their publication on Thursday afternoon the TaxPayers' Alliance research team sprung into action and pored over the data. They discovered the average cost of an MP was £157,747 and a total of £718,733 was spent on hotel claims in 2019-20. Read all the findings here.
In total, taxpayers forked out £127.6 million, an increase of 6.5 per cent compared to the previous year. Thanks to the efforts of our media team the findings were covered in depth in Britain's best-selling newspaper, The Daily Mail.
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The next morning the TPA was invited onto Mike Graham's talkRadio show to broadcast our discoveries to the nation. Our digital campaign manager Joe Ventre didn't hold back, telling millions of listeners, "this should serve as a reminder to MPs that they have a responsibility to use their expenses prudently."
While MPs must have the resources to do their jobs, many taxpayers will be worried about the growing cost of politics. With the economy and public finances in such dire straits, limiting their expenses claims would be a welcome way for MPs to show that we’re all in it together.
Click here to read our findings in full.
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TPA fights back against calls for tax rises
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At the start of the week reports were flying around Westminster that chancellor Rishi Sunak is considering hiking corporation tax to control the nation's spiralling debt. As the TaxPayers' Alliance has long argued, with the economy on its knees and millions facing unemployment, hammering Britain’s big employers would be madness.
Writing in The Telegraph our chief executive John O'Connell made clear this is worst time to be hiking taxes, "To impose taxpayer austerity on our hard-pressed firms just when they need space to drive the recovery would be harsh, to put it mildly. "
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Instead of raising corporation tax, the chancellor should slash the cost of hiring, boost pay packets and drive a wave of employment to get the economy moving again.
Additionally, Rishi must be relentless in making savings and launching a war on government waste. In November last year, the TPA proposed a string of measures that could save £73 billion by 2026.
In the run up to the Budget we will be pushing hard for tax cuts to get the economy motoring again. We will be unrelenting in this battle. Taxpayers will never forgive the chancellor if he wrecks the recovery before it’s even begun.
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TaxPayers' Alliance in the news
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Damaging digital taxes
Part of the battle is hitting back against attempts to introduce new taxes. Once again the government is floating the idea of an online sales tax - a 2 per cent charge could be tacked on to all products bought online in Britain. Speaking to Nick Ferrari on LBC, our research director Duncan Simpson pointed out what a terrible idea this is.
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As our research has shown all this tax will do is the punish the poorest and most vulnerable in society. The high street is in a parlous state but imposing damaging digital taxes will do nothing to level the playing field.
Instead of punishing progress, the government should drop an online sales tax and cut business rates to make local shops more competitive. Click here to listen to the interview.
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BBC facing "financial risk"
A new report by the National Audit Office has laid bare the financial challenges facing the BBC. Notably the Beeb has seen audience viewing times decrease and this been coupled with a reduction in income from the licence fee. It's mainly younger audiences that are tuning out, with 450,000 fewer paying the TV tax according to the most recent figures.
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The TPA wasted no time in issuing a press release to the nation's media. Comments by our chief executive John O'Connell were picked up far and wide, most prominently in the Daily Express, “It’s no wonder millions of us have turned off the BBC. Even after forcing pensioners to pay the telly tax on pain of imprisonment, Auntie’s carried on splashing out on supersized star salaries and all-inclusive Hollywood holidays, leaving ratepayers to pick up the tab." It’s about time we axe the tax and let the British public decide what they want to watch.
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Business rates: 10 per cent in 10 years
With current restrictions wreaking havoc on the high street, it is easy to forget another unpopular constraint to businesses that has been around a lot longer - business rates. As TPA researcher Scott Simmonds writes this week the amount paid in rates has been accelerating at a fast pace for the past decade due to the rapid rise in the business rate multiplier - which has increased by 10 per cent in the last 10 years.
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He argues that this hike is having a deeply detrimental impact on many businesses and multiple exemptions are further complicating Britain's bloated tax code. It is time to seriously consider an overhaul of a tax that is becoming increasingly convoluted. Lower, simpler taxes would be easier to understand and easier to implement, for government and business owners alike. Click here to read the full story.
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A lack of communication
The Express recently revealed that the Scottish government blew £1.6 million on a public health campaign that "most Scots failed to understand." The FACTS campaign was intended to alert people to the dangers of covid and how to keep themselves safe.
But according to polling most Scots were not familiar with the campaign which was publicised in newspapers, as well as TV and radio. Asked for his thoughts, John O'Connell was unequivocal, "These ad campaigns should not see Scots' money wasted. While it's critical that covid rules are communicated clearly to the public, taxpayers need to know that every penny is being properly spent."
Send me your examples of wasteful government spending.
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Harry Fone
Grassroots Campaign Manager
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