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lets not get complacent we all should earn our money legally not steal from hard working tax payers on the minimum wage If any MP want more then i suggest he goes out and earns it not take just to be up market, we should all like to have more but then i speak for all those people who have worked hard all thier lives and paid taxes No wonder this country is a mess thanks to people who are just plain greedy .
Let them go abroad there are decent people in this country who are able to do the job .

- Susan Powell, worcestershire

With an attitude like that I would like his Constituency Party to look a new candidate........this goes for all parties,as well.
We should be represented by MP's that reflect the wishes of their relevant area,I bet his area does not agree with him in our current economic state.

- Grumpy As Hell, wimbledon

Lets cut through it all. All politicians stink.

- Annabelle, london

Why should M.Ps of all the parties, get poorer; that would only make them like the rest of the UK population; and we have enough poverty already.

What the British tax payers need to understand is this; if M.Ps are punished in anyway; much like the like bankers, and high earners etc; they will all move abroad where their skills are appreciated and rewarded.

This will leave the UK without any politicians; and we will all end up in debt.

It would be no joke; without their brains and skills guiding us; even our children will end up in debt.

- Mickyinlondon, london

MPs are in the top 5% in terms of income in the Country. This is roughly 3 times the average wage of their constituents. They have just cut the number of days at Parliament by 10% and have given themselves a 2.3% pay increase. Their stewardship of the economy over the last decade has led to this years Budget. The late Tony Banks suggested their Constituency work was akin to an overpaid Social Worker. My wife was a special needs teacher. From time to time the local MP would press the case for a specific child to be supported. He was working for the parents who complained to him. What he didn't understand that the teachers had already assessed which children in a school of hundreds had most need of a scarce resource and the only way a different child could be given support was to remove it from another child.

So far as Parliament is concerned virtually no MPs attend debates. They are told by the whips how to vote and The Lords are expected to correct their mistakes.

If individuals feel they can earn more outside being an MP then they should go and let normal people who have a sense of public service replace them.

- David Burns, Beckenham

firstly,the primary home for the mps should be in their consistuency - reddich for jackie smith. the alternative to the second home allowance would be staying in hotels, which will turn out to be more expensive in the long run. the only solution is to reduce the items they can claim as expenses or maybe apply a tax on the total sum.

- Isabel, london

D Woodstock - I could quite as easily turn your argument on its head and say that if you believe there's insufficient information available to judge that expenses are reasonable, there's also insufficient information available to judge that expenses are unreasonable.

I don't work for an MP, but I do work in a job which requires travel, and thus, I incur expenses. People seem to have got their knickers in a twist about the very concept of an MP having expenses, yet they are fundamentally necessary where you are requiring someone to work in a location other than their home (which I'm defining as their constituency - and which should be defined as their constituency).

I agree with Roz's comments to a certain extent (maybe I didn't make this clear in my earlier comment) - MPs should live in rented, furnished accommodation. They should not have mortgages paid for where they keep the profit from sale, nor should they have furnishings paid for where they get to keep them after their tenure. The use of private furnished accommodation would address that issue perfectly.

An MPs 'halls of residence' sounds like a smart idea, until someone points out the security risk of having so many MPs in one place - you'll end up needing a building with the same security as the House of Commons itself, which would be more costly than privately rented flats.

- Mark Lee, Vauxhall

I was in the RAF and later worked for the MOD. A total of eleven years, none of which is pensionable. In the Sunday papers and Channel 4, I learned that my MP is doing rather nicely from his expenses.

- Fred, Horsham

He does not need to,all he needs to do is get out of parliment and work in the real world where handouts are not a given.People like him is what brings goverments down.

- David, london

Mark Lee of Vauxhall - do you work for one of them or what? If not, then how can you possibly know that what most of them claim is reasonable? No one else does because the information has not been made public yet. I reckon your bizarre comments probably put you in a minority of one. Our MPs have been paid a lot more than peanuts (unless peanuts come coated in 22 karat gold) and we've still got monkeys.

- D Woodstock, London

Do we really need 600-plus MPs? How about doubling their salaries and making half of them redundant? Merging constituencies in pairs would accomplish this. Presenting them with this option should concentrate their minds wonderfully. Unfortunately it's they themselves that get to decide such things, so it won't happen except in my dreams.

To the Tory who doesn't want to get poorer - tough. Resign your seat. Go and earn more elsewhere if you can. I'm sure that there are plenty other Tories who'd be happy to take an MP's salary and who could do just as good a job for the constituency.

- Nigel, London

There's your proof that these so called MP's are doing it for personal gain and not to serve their consituants. They are a disgrace to society and on par with chavs and spivs !

- Joe, Swanley Kent

Mark Lee: if you pay more money, you'll just get richer monkeys . . .

Just as the person elected to PM gets to use No. 10 and then has to move out, a bog-standard house should be built in each constituency for the incumbent MP to move into whilst they serve their local area. The armed forces have barracks, the police have 'police' houses - why should MPs be different? Give them free rail travel, a London Campas and internet connection and a basic salary (I'm assuming most people become MPs out of an aspiration to implement an ideology not for personal enrichment?!) and the rest should be pretty easy if it's paid for on a corporate credit card like a Private Company would use. Only the UK would still have this archaic and quaint scrabbling around in the bottom of the handbag for IOUs and receipts!

- Roz, France

I'm getting fed up of all this expense outrage.

MPs from outside of London need to travel from their constituency home to London to attend sessions in the House of Commons. This means by definition that they need to be paid for travel costs, accommodation (either in a hotel, or privately rented), meals, etc. They also need to get funding for constituency staff, and communications with residents in their constituency.

Of course some MPs have taken the mickey, but the majority are claiming what is reasonable to cover these costs.

Reforms are needed - demand receipts, and give MPs the choice of hotel accommodation or fully furnished managed rented accommodation - as per the private sector.

But please, enough of the bickering over expenses. There will always be a requirement to pay expenses, particularly for constituency work and those MPs from outside London.

The MPs salary is not enough for someone to fund accommodation in both the constituency and central London, and nor is it intended to be.

I would rather my tax money was used to give MPs a salary and package that was appropriate to their position as leaders of our country, then have these costs stripped back to the bones, further discouraging talented people from becoming MPs. Pay peanuts, get monkeys, as they say.

- Mark Lee, Vauxhall

HOW MUCH MORE TAXPAYER'S CASH DO MP's WANT - FOR DOING NOTHING ALL DAY BUT COUNTING THEIR OBSCENE EXPENSES?

There appears to be a sort of game being played in the House of Conmen - to see how many MP's can become millionaires before they are all relegated to the rubbish bin.

If Joe Public knew 5% of what was REALLY going on in Westminster they would explode in rage.

Like a secret stash of expensive wines in the cellar beneath Whitehall - paid for by Joe Public.

- Reuben Camara, Morecambe/Lancaster

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