Skip to main content

Exclusive: Scrooge Tories travel for free at Xmas

In the austerity era, MPs claim £100s for festive journeys

TRANSPORT Secretary Grant Shapps is among 16 Tory scrooges who clawed back Christmas Day expenses, the Morning Star can reveal, as cuts force more families to use foodbanks over the festive period.

Current Conservative MPs have claimed hundreds of pounds in expenses for travel on December 25 over the last 10 years.

By comparison, MPs from all other parties have claimed a mere £2.25 in total for such travel since 2010.

A leading Labour MP said that the “Chris Rea-gate scandal” drove home for Christmas just how out of touch the Tories are with the people struggling under their policies.

The Star’s investigation of Christmas Day expenses claims comes amid rising holiday hunger that has forced United Nations children’s fund Unicef to step in and feed youngsters in Britain over the Christmas break.

The charity running most of Britain’s foodbanks, the Trussell Trust, also expect to give out an emergency aid parcel every nine seconds this winter.

“As we approach Christmas 2020, it looks like poverty in the UK is spiralling out of control,” the trust said.

Despite the desperate situation existing after a decade of Tory rule, the party’s MPs have repeatedly refused to put their hands in their own pockets for trips costing less than a Christmas pudding.

Former Conservative leadership candidate Jeremy Hunt made two claims worth £3.52 and £4.80 for travel on Christmas Day 2010.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock claimed £14.80 in the same year, while his current Cabinet colleague Mr Shapps clawed back the £11.70 cost of a journey made on Christmas Day 2017.

Laurence Robertson billed taxpayers for £2.50 every Christmas Day between 2011 and 2015, as well as for £4.80 in 2010.

Fellow backbencher Sir Roger Gale claimed for travel within his constituency in seven of the past 10 years, costing £10 each time.

Meanwhile, Anne Marie Morris, who has campaigned to scrap the meagre £10 Christmas bonus for people on benefits, claimed for four Christmas Day journeys, costing between £6.38 and £11.70.  

Bernard Jenkin once scrutinised public spending on Christmas cards, but he nonetheless invoiced for a £17.36 journey in his constituency on Christmas Day 2018.

Austerity champion Peter Bone drove home for Christmas on £36 worth of expenses in 2017, while Robert Halfon, chair of the Tories’ so-called workers’ group, clawed back £2.70 in 2011.

A spokesperson for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) confirmed that, in most cases, the date of the claims refers to the date on which the cost was incurred by the MP.

But the IPSA suggested that at least one miserly Tory may have spent part of Christmas Day submitting expense claims. 

Last Christmas, John Penrose, the government’s anti-corruption champion and husband of test-and-trace boss Baroness Dido Harding, filed eight claims worth a combined £522.

James Gray, Karl McCartney, Julian Lewis, Mark Pritchard and Daniel Poulter are the other Tory MPs who undertook official business on Christmas Day, according to their expense claims worth between £5.94 and £75.15.

Overall, Tory MPs charged taxpayers for £953.25 in travel expenses that they incurred or claimed on Christmas Day. 

Labour MP Ian Lavery told the Star: “Being an MP is a 365-day a year job.

"But at a time when more families than ever will rely on a foodbank for Christmas dinner because of Tory cuts, it’s incredible that the party’s wealthy MPs can’t foot their own bill for a single day.

“Some of these Tory MPs are claiming Christmas Day travel expenses so regularly you’d think they were Father Christmas if they didn’t have a voting record that would make the Grinch seem generous.

“This is what Chris Rea must have meant when he sang ‘soon there’ll be a freeway’.”

IPSA rules say that expenses can be claimed for journeys “which are in support of the MP’s parliamentary functions.”

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing on behalf of the MPs named. But the Star could find only one occasion when Christmas Day travel costs were claimed back by a current MP from another party – Labour’s Alex Cunningham, who billed the taxpayer for £2.25 in 2017.

OWNED BY OUR READERS

We're a reader-owned co-operative, which means you can become part of the paper too by buying shares in the People’s Press Printing Society.

 

 

Become a supporter

Fighting fund

You've Raised:£ 13,288
We need:£ 4,712
3 Days remaining
Donate today