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Sleepless in Westminster: MPs bed down in their offices after losing perks
Nicholas Cecil, Deputy Political Editor1 Jul 2010
MPs are sleeping secretly in the Commons after being stripped of their second home allowance.
A handful of parliamentarians are bedding down at Westminster during the week because they are now banned from claiming on the taxpayer for a hotel, a rented flat, or a mortgage on a second home.
But they want to stay anonymous for fear they will be evicted on health and safety grounds.
“I'm not complaining. I'm just getting on with it,” said a Tory who asked not to be named. “I'm desperately trying to do the best for my constituents, which is to be here.”
Also said to be staying overnight are a senior Tory backbencher and a Conservative who represents an outer London seat.
They are understood to be using makeshift arrangements such as camp beds — but they have been kept awake by the bongs of Big Ben, as well as other noises around the neighbourhood. They can shower and brush their teeth in bathrooms on the parliamentary estate.
Mark Field, Conservative MP for Cities of London and Westminster, said: “With these new rules, quite a number of MPs have taken to sleeping on the floor in their office.
“Unfortunately, a lot of new MPs are paying the price for the sins of past generations. We have gone from a very lax system, abused by many in the past, to a highly bureaucratic and strict regime.”
The Tory who spoke to the Evening Standard stressed that if he commuted home he would be unlikely to get there until 1am, but would have to be back at work at 8am on some days.
“It's far better to make ad hoc arrangements to stay in London on Monday and Tuesday nights,” he added.
On occasion he has stayed with friends, but does not want to take advantage of their hospitality.
Under the rules, introduced by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, MPs whose constituency station is within an hour's commute of Westminster cannot claim the second home allowance of up to £19,900 a year.
In this year's Commons Members' Handbook, MPs are warned they are not allowed to stay overnight
at Westminster. A Commons spokesman added: “Offices at the House aren't equipped in the same way as sleeping accommodation in terms of fire safety.”
MPs are hopeful the standards authority will agree a compromise so they can claim to stay in London on Monday and Tuesday nights, when the Commons sits late.
Change in rules
Nearly 130 MPs are banned from claiming the second home allowance — including all London MPs. But other MPs whose constituency is within an hour's commute from Westminster are also not eligible for the housing expenses. This means that dozens of MPs who used to be able to claim up to £24,000-a-year for a second home no longer can. But they are eligible for a London Area Living Allowance of £3,760.
Reader views (43)
If I see any more news about these people I will be in tears,don't they have to lead hard lives ? ,and the pay is so paltry,you should have tried my 12 year stint in the Navy where I can't even qualify for a pension.
- Davey_buoy, Chertsey, 02/07/2010 17:56
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@Mike, London. I am very flattered. I have been having my name plastered all over the front pages of the Canadian, USA and India news media!!
I must be doing something right - which is far more than can be said about those parasites loitering with intent in Pigminster.
- Reuben Camara, Plot 1, Morecambe Compound, EUSSR, 02/07/2010 16:54
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There are enough grace and favour appartments in Westminster to house all these crooks if and when they are working late - which I believe is very rarely. Instead they prefer to do as Jacqui Smith did - and fraudulently claim £116,000 of public money for a spare room in her sister's house which she classified as her "main home". If IPSA do not apply the rules robustly we will eventually have another 640 "Jacqui Smiths" all building property portfolios with tax payers' money. If MPs are unwilling to abide by the rules then they can step down and try and find another job.
- R.F. York, Yorks, UK, 02/07/2010 14:07
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They could erect tents on Parliament Square for them perhaps?
Anyone who goes into public service to make money is doing so for ALL the wrong reasons, that includes the likes of the BBC.
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 02/07/2010 09:45
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Let the government buy a block of flats and then the mps can stay there every night and pay for the use of them like every other person has to .
Our mps get 3.5k extra for living near london they can use that to get a taxi home if they don't like public transport
- andy, woking, 02/07/2010 07:04
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I thought they can just form a kind of Big brother house around westminster lol. They already receive a lot of money, which is related their kind of work that involves traveling and sleeping out.
- Daph walker, London, 02/07/2010 01:00
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Thats better keep em on the job for ever, pay no overnight expences at all to any of them.
- stuart, chesterfield,derbyshire, 01/07/2010 21:49
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Oh woe is me! And to think only last week they snuck some generous tax exemptions into the budget for themselves and their families. It must be awful having to live like ordinary hard-working people. Put up a tent in Parliament Square!
- Jack, Richmond, 01/07/2010 21:49
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In the European so-called 'Parliament' each MEP's little office has a sofa that converts to a bed.
- Steve, London, England, 01/07/2010 20:20
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Westminster needs to charge a overnight fee, or throw in breakfast and charge a London rate B@B so the Taxpayer can recoup some money.
- barbus, Liverpool, 01/07/2010 20:12
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If they have a London allowance, and all are within an hour's travelling, why not drive home? If, as they tell us, they work SO late then the road will be empty. Thousands of other people do this on shift work without all this fuss. I could just see the supermarkets letting their staff kip on the floors there when on late shift. If you don't like it, then leave. You all had it so good for such a long time - tough now.
- Amber in mitcham, Mitcham Surrey, 01/07/2010 19:21
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This is stupid. So some MP's get a second home allowence while others do not. This is unfair and pathetic.
Buy a bloody hotel or an hostel to put all MP's who stay overnight up. They are cretins but they are OUR cretins and we should treat them with some respect.
- Graim, London, 01/07/2010 18:11
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Memo to Westminster cleaning staff -
Don't hang back in hoovering up any of our MPs who prove to be time wasters, snout truffers and self serving wanglers.
Feel free - you have the authority of the electorate.
- I S Pie, the Lobby, 01/07/2010 17:46
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May be they should see what they can trade-off, would they be open to offers there. Can see the need for keeping control on spending here but, you wouldn't want them underperforming, because of bad sleeping arrangements.
Mick in London, the rope business, were you serious, I mostly read you as being so.
- M, London, 01/07/2010 17:30
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By all means, but charge them a decent London overnight charge and the cost of cleaning and fumigatting each room used evey night.
Not recoverable, and they get a salary and good pension. Don't like it, resign immediately.
Time to stop greedy MP's of all parties taking liberties and the mickey out of taxpayers.
Apply stringently the same Health & Safety Laws they force down our throats. The House Of Commons is not listed as multiple overnight accomodation.
- Curious Observer., Harrow, 01/07/2010 17:21
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The attendance in the Commons seems to be low when one chances on the parliament Channel.If the sittings were from 8.00 to 5.00 Mon to Friday there would be no problems & a sight more work done.Amazing how many MPs have time for second careers and personality TV appearances.
Sadly my opinion is that "you can never trust a word they say now"so hang the lot of them.
- Peter DOFF, audierne france, 01/07/2010 16:31
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Why don't they join the House of Lords? Lots of opportunity to sleep there.
But seriously, if this affects just a handful of MPs who live within one hour of Parliament, then how do the rest of them manage? Lucrative second jobs as company board directors and advisors? Newspaper columnists and authors?
These poor MPs are well paid and still claim expenses that normal working people can only dream of. They have ample opportunity to get top jobs with six figure salaries when they leave.
They should pay for hotels from out of their own pockets if they want the job badly enough.
- bob forton, london, 01/07/2010 16:10
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Nathaniel, Bradford - the idea of a hotel is a good one. In Sweden, MPs have a dedicated halls-of-residence for them to sleep in.
- Mike, London, 01/07/2010 15:53
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WHO WITH???
- Colin, Bristol, 01/07/2010 15:52
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Mickinlondon - MPs would NEVER be get jobs in Tesco or driving buses or trains. To do such jobs a degree of honesty is essential - and the majority of those re-elected in May are guilty of misappropriation of public money. They cannot be trusted to do any job which involves handling money. They knew the rules when they stood for re-election. If they are unwilling to abide by them then they must step down and try their hand at road sweeping.
- R.F. York, Yorks, UK, 01/07/2010 15:41
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How come I can afford to rent a flat in zone 2 and I earn less than half what they do? But they can't do the same?
- Kay Burley ate my hamster, Hackney, London, 01/07/2010 15:41
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I can believe MPs work long hours some times, but wouldn't the simple solution be to provide them with a hostel? If you work late you need somewhere to sleep, get changed and shower a dozen rooms like this would avoid 'hard luck' stories but for significantly less than the rent on a 3 bed semi in Mayfair.
- Nathaniel, Bradford, 01/07/2010 15:33
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No-one feels sorry They reaped what they sowed. If they complain now no-one is listening.
Tough you have knowledge now of the rest of us travel home and our difficulties.
So live with it
- Patrick Mc Crossan, LONDON, 01/07/2010 15:29
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Poor, poor dears - they expect sympathy? If they don't like their job, do what they always tell others to do and change to another one. We must now ensure that all food and drink subsidies in the Houses of Parliament are removed as no other workers get these.
Just in case you don't get the message dear downtrodden MPs, you had your noses in the trough for long enough and never again will you be allowed to do the same.
- Carl, London, 01/07/2010 15:26
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Reuben! Has been a while since you posted your highly considered, well-balanced missives here (I assume you've been tied up penning Daily Express leader articles). Welcome back!
Happy Europe Day by the way!
- Mike, London, 01/07/2010 15:26
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I can believe MPs work long hours some times, but wouldn't the simple solution be to provide them with a hostel? If you work late you need somewhere to sleep, get changed and shower a dozen rooms like this would avoid 'hard luck' stories but for significantly less than the rent on a 3 bed semi in Mayfair.
- Nathaniel, Bradford, 01/07/2010 15:24
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Mike in London believes MPs work long hours for very little money. I would remind them that they earn £64,000 per annum for at best a very part-time job. They only attend parliament two or three days weekly. No qualifications or training are necessary to become an MP - and most of them would be unemployable in the private sector. They are guilty of misappropriation of millions of pounds of tax payers' money. In short, they are the scum of the earth and I wouldn't employ one of to clean my toilet.
- R.F. York, Yorks, UK, 01/07/2010 15:23
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I can believe MPs work long hours some times, but wouldn't the simple solution be to provide them with a hostel? If you work late you need somewhere to sleep, get changed and shower a dozen rooms like this would avoid 'hard luck' stories but for significantly less than the rent on a 3 bed semi in Mayfair.
- Nathaniel, Bradford, 01/07/2010 15:22
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The point made earlier about improving transport links has been well made.
Now they know how some of us have to suffer getting home after the last train.
I look forward to these unamed (why?) MPs making the case for improved late London transport.
- Justin Thyme, London, 01/07/2010 14:56
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MPs need a trade union to safe-guard their working conditions, benefits, expenses, and pension rights, without a trade union defending their working conditions; unscrupulous Whitehall mandarins will send their jobs to India, Pakistan, and China, where labour is cheaper, and more efficient.
If nothing is done to protect our politicians; they will all end up working in Tesco’s, or driving buses and tube trains.
OK I know Unions have been big bad bogey men to politicians in the past, but when you are working in a sweatshop like the House of Commons, and your working conditions are slowly being eroded by primitive third world thinking, and you are reduced to sleeping in poor conditions like council tenants do, and you are forced to eat poor quality meals on wheels in the House of Commons excuse for a restaurant, just to save the countries shareholders more cash for private use, then this is an abuse of human rights, and a violation of the Magna Carta.
If this injustice and persecution of MPs persists; then the Nation will only have itself to blame, if we see another Oliver Cromwell rise up, and restore the Status Quo of FU jack I’m alright.
Let them have a Trade Union ‘’Now’’ or forever suffer the consequences of no more free thinking F-U jacksie people in the Houses of Parliament.
Nobody should have to sleep on the floor, they could at least have ropes to allow them to sleep standing up, it worked in the Royal Navy, and it can work in the Houses of Parliament.
- mickinlondon, london, 01/07/2010 14:18
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If they are breaking Health and Safety rules, then they should be punished and/or the place closed down. Maybe that way MPs will start to realise that Health and Safety rules don't work for the rest of us either.
It must be hard for these poor dears to come to terms with living and working in Britain as normal citizens like the rest of us.
- Jules, Ilkley, U.K., 01/07/2010 14:12
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I find it hard to believe any MP is sleeping 'on the job'. It is obvious anonymity was requested because other MPs would know he/she was talking rubbish.
I suppose the next thing we will learn is that many MPs are on sick leave with stress because they do not know where their next meals are coming from.
They've helped themselves, hand over fist, from the public purse and now they have to fend for themselves.
Welcome to the real world.
- Steve, Bexhill-on-Sea, 01/07/2010 13:41
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Mike in London considers that MPs should have a pay rise.
I think we should pay them 'what they're worth', but would they work for that sort of money?
- John Jones, Westminster, 01/07/2010 13:17
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'A handful......' so that's 2-3. So what?
- Wispy Wonder, London, 01/07/2010 13:15
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What absolute tosh. If the MP in question would not be able to get home until 1am even though he is an hours commute from London then perhaps his constituency influence might best be used for pushing for better transport links for both himself and his constituents!
Most constituencies that are within an hour of London have very high levels of commuters and they are only having to put up with what others from their town are doing on a daily basis.
- Richard, Maidstone, 01/07/2010 13:09
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Poor lambs. Wait until I get out the world's smallest violin ....
- Helen, London, 01/07/2010 13:09
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Replace them with poles for a third of the money, just like the building trade, and bus drivers
- Peter Woods, Torre Chianca, 01/07/2010 13:07
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What disingenuous rubbish! Bear in mind that the long-overdue removal of the ridiculously generous 2nd home allowance only affects London MPs, and the London allowance that they receive should be more than sufficient to enable them to pay for a hotel room for the night, or a cab journey home.
I refuse to believe that work commitments make it impossible for them to get home before 1am on a regular basis, especially having seen the chamber virtually deserted during many afternoon debates on the Parliamentary channel...
- HB, Essex, 01/07/2010 13:04
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They could always share one of the tents in Parliament Squsre
- barbie, lindon uk, 01/07/2010 12:59
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If Boris is successful in getting rid of the mess in Parliament Square perhaps the MP's could put up their own tents!
- Derek, Esher, Surrey, 01/07/2010 12:54
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Excuse me while I check the site URL. Is this the Evening Standard or Viz?
MPs on £65,000 are being forced to rough it on camp beds and listen to Big Ben bonging all night?? How does my brother, who works similar hours some days and for about 1/3 the money, manage to get home and sleep then?
- Kevin T, Beckenham, Kent, 01/07/2010 12:54
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Evict all 645 of the devious, bloated, mealy-mouthed, two-faced, hypocritical parasites on 'Elf 'n' Safety or under any other law of the land that Joe Public has to abide by.
The pigs have robbed the hard-working tax payer blind for the past 300 years.
- Reuben Camara, Plot 1, Morecambe Compound, EUSSR, 01/07/2010 12:49
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This is a controversial view I know - but aren't we a bit harsh on our elected representatives.
They work very long hours, get loads of abuse, not a great deal of money. At the very least, we should look at giving them a decent pay rise.
- Mike, London, 01/07/2010 12:44
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