HOUSE OF COMMONS,
LONDON
SW1A 0AA
STATEMENT FROM BRIAN BINLEY M.P. WITH REGARD TO MP’s EXPENSES
Salary is that payment you receive for the work you do as defined in your contract of employment.
Expenses are the monies you are able to reclaim to cover expenditure made in pursuit of your work.
Allowances are additional monies paid for staff, office resources, and other requirements needed to support you in the furtherance on your duties.
In other words, there is a clear differential between salaries, expenses and allowances but sadly that differential is not adequately defined in the rules for MP’s.
And the reason for that is that for 25 years, MPs have not received proper salary increases but the powers that be have increased MPs expenses and allowances on the basis of an unwritten understanding that they can be used to supplement their salary and there in lies the problem.
It should be noted that a number of years ago, it was assumed that Mps salaries should be maintained on a par with a middle sized upper school Head teacher’s salary which is now set at between £85 and £95,000 per year. That objective has not been achieved when one recognises that an MPs salary is now £64,766.
So what should we do?
We need an independent body to set MPs salaries each year and to define the rules with regard to expenditure and allowances much more clearly. We secondly need an independent accounting process to regularly define to regularly ensure that claimed expenses fall within the remit of those finely defined rules and finally, we need to be totally transparent about the publication of our expenses every year.
I have been on the 1922 Executive Committee which acts as the Conservative Party’s backbench professional body for 3 years and during that time I have highlighted this issue as one which will blow up in our faces and so it has. Furthermore, I have consistently called for the reforms outlined above and I continue to do so.
On a personal basis, I have never bought anything in my flat on expenses and that includes white goods, crockery, cutlery, bed linen, furniture etc. I have never changed the definition of my first home and consequently have never received any benefit for so doing. I have always paid for the cleaning of my flat from my own pocket and I have never claimed for any repairs or any structural maintenance on my flat from expenses. Finally, I travel to and from London on standard class rail fare ticket.
In other words, I am immensely careful with taxpayers’ money and recognise how hard it is to earn.
I have, however, always employed the staff necessary to service my needs especially in regard to work with constituents recognising that to date we have dealt with over 3,500 constituents’ personal problems since I became an elected MP. Secondly, I have always used my Communications allowance to ensure that my Constituents were fully aware of how to contact me if they needed to.
In conclusion, no matter how badly drawn the rules are, every MP should know the difference between right and wrong and at the end of the day, that has been the yardstick I have used.
Brian Binley M.P.
12th May 2009