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A London MP is calling for free taxis to take his colleagues home after late sittings of the House of Commons.
Senior Labour MP Andrew Dismore made the submission to the official body reviewing parliamentary expenses rules in the wake of this year's scandals.
He revealed he is giving stranded MPs lifts home when votes are held after the Tubes has stopped.
Other MPs have called for a big rise to £12,000 in the additional salary paid to London MPs to reflect their higher living costs in the capital. It is currently £7,500. One MP said she spent half her £64,000 salary on subsidising her Commons office from her own pocket.
Letters to the Committee on Standards in Public Life, chaired by Sir Christopher Kelly, also call for bigger allowances for offices and staffing to reflect the cost of salaries and rent.
Hendon MP Mr Dismore wrote that as outer London MPs were to be banned from claiming for a second home they would need help getting home after very late votes at Westminster.
"At the time of preparing this letter, for example, the previous night the House finished voting at 1.30am," wrote Mr Dismore. "Several London Members were left stranded as, apart from night buses, public transport had ceased to run. I gave two MPs a lift home, as I had my car. It is rather ironic that House officers are provided with a taxi service home after late night divisions, a number of whom earn far more than MPs, but MPs who need it do not get this provision."
Commons officials who live within 15 miles of Westminster are given free taxis after late business in the House. From April, outer London MPs will lose the right to spend up to £24,000 on overnight accommodation in London or a second home.
Downing Street and the standards committee today played down the idea of a raise in MPs' £64,000 salary to replace expenses. But the committee is expected to suggest a new system, possibly making it easier and simpler to rent rather than own a second home.
Mr Brown said yesterday that "we've got to recognise that MPs are living in two places at once". A source at No 10 said: "He is eagerly awaiting the results of Sir Christopher Kelly's independent review, which will provide the basis for any future decisions."
Reader views (40)
Our day will come very soon at election time. Throw these thieving pigs to the wall. All of the parties are in this together. You can not give them an easy solution to fix it as they are to busy with their fingers in the till. They bring discredit to our country, bring the police in now (not by taxi)
- Lee, middlesex
It's about time that MPs abided by the same laws that ordinary citizens have to abide by.
No employer would give free taxis and even if they did the inland revenue would see this as a "benefit in kind" which is taxable.
On the subject of retrospectively changing the rules... these politicians have enshrined this corrosive practice in their approach to legislation for ordinary citizens. Now they are starting to get a taste for the injustice of this with the retrospective re-writing of the rules for their expenses.
Similarly, the legislation they passed to turn Britain into the most spied upon stasi like state caught them out when their expense claims were published.
MPs should be treated like every other citizen and all privileges should be immediately removed.
Otherwise, the crazy behaviour of these MPs goes unchecked and they are blind to the impact on ordinary citizens.
- Stephen, Swindon
a dedicated hotel/hostel across the river on the southbank in one of the many government buildings over there where m.p.'s could stay in such an eventuality
would serve the purpose. as long as it was of a reasonable standard, neither ostentatious and profilgate,
now meagre and drab. say of holiday inn/ premier inn standard.m.'s could stay at taxpayers expense if a certain number of currently awarded expences ceased.
however, given that mr average in similier circumstances can take the night bus, it would help m.p.s to appreciate the common lot and level the chasm between m.p's privilaged life styles and those they purport to represent. thus if they feel night buses and late night transport dangerous they could campaign to improve their lot and that of joe soap.
- M.O'Brien, london.uk
Walk you lazy good for nothing tax burners.
- Dom, london
What a joke.Can there really be anything else that we have not paid for?I hesitate to ask what their salaries are for!!
- Maddy, Gedney Drove End UK
Free taxis for MPs ? You must be joking. There are many people working all sorts of hours in London and elsewhere,few get free taxis. If MPs don't want to accept the terms and conditions of their job, then don't stand for parliament, live like the rest of us.
Jose Luis
SW18
- Jose Luis, London SW18
These swindlers get plenty enough, time to stop the madness!
- Democracy Please, Northolt, London
i suppose we should be grateful they dont want us to buy them a taxi,oops i may have put a idea into their greedy heads
- John Mckim, glasgow.uk
They just never give up, do they. My boss never gave me a taxie to get home when I worked late. They just cannot keep their hands out of the people's pocket.
- Bernard Ex Pat, Myrtle Beach SC USA
Before this goes any further, can we have a clocking in and out setup in the Commons so there can be no doubt about hours worked? No doubt our MPs will consider this infra dig. What dig?
- Js, London
If they turned up on time like 'normal' office folk, they wouldn't have to work late and would probably finish their day's workload by 09:10am 
- Sanjay, Hounslow, UK
What is your salary for?You don't need any qualifications to become an MP so don't you dare compare yourselves with Doctors,Accountants,nurses,teachers etc...If you don't like the salary and conditions why apply in the first place.Lots of people work away from home and cope.This country copes without the lot of you when on your long holidays so on your bike mate.
- Maddy, Gedney Drove End UK
They don't get it? They will at the election!
- Alan, Chigwell.
What's wrong with a camp bed in the office? MPs chose their hours of work and should have anticipated this need. They take enough of our money, indeed too much. Time to stop whinging.
- James Elliott, Eastbourne UK
ha ha ha I thought we were approaching Guy Fawkes night, not April Fool's Day!!!
- Goggs, London
Let them take the Night Buses,and experience the foul loutish behaviour of some of the Yobs that trash the system. Decent hard working nightshift workers have no alternative but to put up with these yobs.
- Dhan Raj, Basildon
I think they should be forced to publicly explain why they cannot get on a night bus.
- Sarah Bradshaw, Enfield, Middx
Get on a night bus then. Maybe if they had to see society like the rest of us do, they may actually try to change it. People drunk and drugged collapsed in their own vomitus and stupor. Teens forcing the whole bus to listen to their music blaring out of their mobiles whilst smoking on the top deck. The real threat of assault or being stabbed for accidently looking at or "disrespecting" these scumbags. Take a few steps in our shoes
- Dan, Hendon
The country has the highest debt level ever and they expect free taxis. Are these MPs for real!! Do away with the summer recess as someone suggested and let them take annual holiday like the rest of the population. When employment is at its highest how dare they even suggest free taxis.
- H O'Dell, Hertford, Herts
How about public transport that is fit for purpose instead?
- Bloke, Lambeth
Perhaps if these lazy swines didn't take 3 months off as a summer holiday they could deal with voting in the normal office hours.
- Mr Opinion, London
Yeah and I want my free taxi also, where do I sign up? Do they come in different colours?
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
Perhaps if they are forced to catch public transport and do a little bit of walking they will see how unsafe they and they alone have made the streets of London. 'On your bikes' you ungrateful overpaid numpties.
- Nick Holland, glasgow
The obvious comment is "on yer bike".
- David, London
MPs used to finish a lot earlier. They then voted to go back to the arcane hours that they used to work. If they voted to work these ludicrous hours why should we have to fork out for taxi fares for them?
- Dave B, Beckenham
WHAT! Nothing surprises me anymore - What do these greedy aquealing pigs think we do when we work late?
Oh heavens forbid they should have to use P..P...Public Transport like the rest of us plebs.
GET REAL! MP's if you don't like it,stop whining and do us all a favour and resign.
I'm sick to death of hearing these out-of-touch,money grabbing parasites moaning about how "hard-up they are".
Clueless, TOTALLY clueless.
- Anon Pc, London Compound,Londongrad,EUSSR
The MP writes "Several London Members were left stranded as, apart from night buses, public transport had ceased to run". Since the N5 night bus operates every 15 minutes from Trafalgar Square to Hendon and onward to Edgware (every 10 minutes Friday nights)so as to precisely mirror the Northern Line Edgware service I do not call this as being stranded. If there are 3 MPs going in the same direction they can certainly afford to share a cab from their £64,766 salaries
- Donald Smith, London
What about the cleaners working in the houses of parliament on minimum wage and also very unsociable hours. They should have just as much right to a free taxi home as an MP. I used to get a free taxi home when I worked in the city late a night, when I questioned why they did not offer the same service to the cleaners it went on deaf ears. Just because someone does a job you would not want to do does not mean you should treat them like second class citizens… which is what every company seems to. Maybe MPs should be able to get taxi at night but so should everyone else in the building as well!
- Paul B, London
Drop the subsided bars in the Commons and the Lords and I guarantee there'll be far less MP's "working late".
- Bob, Cheam
what is wrong with the public transport that they are so proud of ??
A mini bus service would be ok, as long as the driver had the "knowledge".
- Sadelsor, Hong Kong
The solution they can either catch a bus, tube , train , walk or cycle like the rest of us do daily in london
- Mark Williams, london
Why do MPs think they are the only ones who work late?
Perhaps now they understand how everybody else - especially restaurant, hotel and other leisure industry workers who have to cope on a fraction of an MP's salary - have to get to & from work at inconvenient times.
If there is so much demand for late transport perhaps TfL could do something to improve their service, pressure from MPs would be very welcome.
- Mark Myword, London
It is about time that all MPs understand that the country does not belong to them and that they are public servants paid by the tax payer.
- David Nigel Braham, Milan Italy
Not good enough, simple solution, do us all a favour and RESIGN !!half her salary on office expenses, whoops another pig just flew over, as for taxis do like the rest of us get a bus or walk, the gravy train just hit the buffers.
- Alan Davey, London Uk
They just don't get it, do they?
- Teddy, Islington, London
Nonesense. With thier salaries and folld plated pensions they can pay for their own transport or better still don't attend the House, that way they will do less harm. I never had my expenses reimbrsed for working late. All i goit was a very reduced pension due to the plundering Brown.
- Strongbow Sullivan, Paris,France.
they just don't get it do they ?
- Squiz, Islington
What utter nonsense!
Perhaps a better idea from the viewpoint of the public purse would be to have MPs work on a shift rota basis - just like many workers in the UK must do (including night shifts). The questions of "taxis" home would therefore NOT be an issue i.e. if MPs work late after a "night shift" these greedy, gravy-train, trough-guzzling MPs can simply get a day bus home! Problem solved!
- Fraser, Telford Park
Is there no end to the money-grabbing demands of the snivelling pigs in the House of Conmen?
Let them walk home - just like Joe Public is forced to do.
- Reuben Camara, Morecambe Compound, EUSSR
The solution is simple. House all MPs who need a London home, either temporarily or on a semi-permanent basis in one of the run down council tower blocks nearest the commons. I'm sure that once they experience such 'luxury' accommodation they will move very swiftly to improve the estate for the unfortunate residents.
- Peter, Harrow, UK
