26 current and former MPs managed to dodge some £2,000 worth of debt owed to the taxpayer in 2014-15 as the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) decided not to pursue the money any further because it is not cost effective.
A total of £2,105.43 of debts less than £500 have been abandoned by the authority despite several attempts to contact the MPs involved, with the money not being paid by Ipsa because it fell outside the expenses allowance or was a duplicate claim, among other reasons.
Update: Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, a small government lobbying group, has an elegant solution to the problem:
“If sitting MPs are unwilling to pay what is due, the simple solution would be for the amount to be docked from their next salary payment. Those former MPs who have been named and shamed should also do the honourable thing and pay up – and if they are unwilling to do so, then the obvious sanction would be to remove the parliamentary pass they enjoy as a former member until such as time as their debts to the taxpayer are paid up.”
Below is a full list of the offending MPs:
| MP Name | Party | Constituency | Reason the claim was classified as a debt | Expense Type | Amount written off |
| Barry Gardiner | Labour | Brent North | MP selected ‘not claimed – to repay’ when submitting this item they purchased on the Payment Card, but haven’t yet returned the funds to us. | Expense Outside Scheme | £77.30 |
| Caroline Dinenage | Conservative | Gosport | Item on Payment Card deemed not payable by IPSA, because it is not allowable under our rules | Const Office Tel. Usage/Rental | £13.50 |
| Charles Hendry | Conservative | Wealden (formerly) | Item on Payment Card deemed not payable by IPSA, because it is not allowable under our rules | Hotel London Area | £87.60 |
| Chris Skidmore | Conservative | Kingswood | Item on Payment Card deemed not payable by IPSA, because it is not allowable under our rules | Hotel London Area | £125.00 |
| Clive Efford | Labour | Eltham | Duplicate claim | Newspapers/Journals | £79.20 |
| Daniel Poulter | Conservative | Central Suffolk and North Ipswich | MP selected ‘not claimed – to repay’ when submitting this item they purchased on the Payment Card, but haven’t yet returned the funds to us. | Expense Outside Scheme | £229.62 |
| David Mowat | Conservative | Warrington South | MP selected ‘not claimed – to repay’ when submitting this item they purchased on the Payment Card, but haven’t yet returned the funds to us. | Expense Outside Scheme | £35.00 |
| Edward Timpson | Conservative | Crewe and Nantwich | MP selected ‘not claimed – to repay’ when submitting this item they purchased on the Payment Card, but haven’t yet returned the funds to us. | Public Tr OTHER | £127.70 |
| Frank Dobson | Labour | Holborn and St Pancras | MP selected ‘not claimed – to repay’ when submitting this item they purchased on the Payment Card, but haven’t yet returned the funds to us. | Expense Outside Scheme | £7.50 |
| Frank Roy | Labour | Motherwell and Wishaw | Item on Payment Card deemed not payable by IPSA, because it is not allowable under our rules | Const Office Tel. Usage/Rental | £13.50 |
| Item on Payment Card deemed not payable by IPSA, because we received insufficient evidence to support the claim | Const Office Tel. Usage/Rental | £59.87 | |||
| Guy Opperman | Conservative | Hexham | Direct rental payment for accommodation was overpaid to the landlord | Accommodation rent | £161.09 |
| Ian Mearns | Labour | Gateshead | MP selected ‘not claimed – to repay’ when submitting this item they purchased on the Payment Card, but haven’t yet returned the funds to us. | Public Tr RAIL – RTN | £10.00 |
| Joe Benton | Labour | Bootle (formerly) | Item on Payment Card deemed not payable by IPSA, because we received insufficient evidence to support the claim | Const Office Tel. Usage/Rental | £13.50 |
| Item on Payment Card deemed not payable by IPSA, because we received insufficient evidence to support the claim | Const Office Tel. Usage/Rental | £107.49 | |||
| Item on Payment Card deemed not payable by IPSA, because we received insufficient evidence to support the claim | Const Office Tel. Usage/Rental | £188.16 | |||
| Julie Hilling | Labour | Bolton West (formerly) | MP selected ‘not claimed – to repay’ when submitting this item they purchased on the Payment Card, but haven’t yet returned the funds to us. | Expense Outside Scheme | £14.00 |
| MP selected ‘not claimed – to repay’ when submitting this item they purchased on the Payment Card, but haven’t yet returned the funds to us. | Expense Outside Scheme | £61.30 | |||
| Khalid Mahmood | Labour | Birmingham Perry Barr | Item on Payment Card deemed not payable by IPSA, because it is not allowable under our rules | Hotel London Area | £6.00 |
| MP selected ‘not claimed – to repay’ when submitting this item they purchased on the Payment Card, but haven’t yet returned the funds to us. | Staff Hotel | £6.00 | |||
| MP selected ‘not claimed – to repay’ when submitting this item they purchased on the Payment Card, but haven’t yet returned the funds to us. | Staff Hotel | £12.00 | |||
| MP selected ‘not claimed – to repay’ when submitting this item they purchased on the Payment Card, but haven’t yet returned the funds to us. | Staff Hotel | £12.00 | |||
| Laurence Robertson | Conservative | Tewkesbury | Claim for late payment charges, which are ineligible under our Scheme rules | Const Office Tel. Usage/Rental | £13.50 |
| Claim for late payment charges, which are ineligible under our Scheme rules | Const Office Tel. Usage/Rental | £13.50 | |||
| Michael Meacher | Labour | Oldham West and Royton | Item on Payment Card deemed not payable by IPSA, because it is not allowable under our rules | Const Office Tel. Usage/Rental | £13.50 |
| Item on Payment Card deemed not payable by IPSA, because we received insufficient evidence to support the claim | Const Office Tel. Usage/Rental | £13.50 | |||
| Paul Farrelly | Newcastle-under-Lyme | Item on Payment Card deemed not payable by IPSA, because we received insufficient evidence to support the claim | Expense Outside Scheme | £28.00 | |
| Peter Bone | Conservative | Wellingborough | Duplicate claim | Own Vehicle Car | £9.90 |
| Duplicate claim | Own Vehicle Car | £18.00 | |||
| Duplicate claim | Stationery Purchase | £12.27 | |||
| Sian James | Labour | Swansea East | Item on Payment Card deemed not payable by IPSA, because we received insufficient evidence to support the claim | Public Tr RAIL Railcard | £193.00 |
| Stephen Barclay | Conservative | North East Cambridgeshire | Duplicate claim | Public Tr RAIL – RTN | £50.00 |
| MP selected ‘not claimed – to repay’ when submitting this item they purchased on the Payment Card, but haven’t yet returned the funds to us. | Expense Outside Scheme | £12.75 | |||
| Stephen McCabe | Labour | Birmingham Selly Oak | Item on Payment Card deemed not payable by IPSA, because it is not allowable under our rules | Const Office Tel. Usage/Rental | £13.50 |
| Item on Payment Card deemed not payable by IPSA, because it is not allowable under our rules | Const Office Tel. Usage/Rental | £13.50 | |||
| Stephen Williams | Liberal Democrat | Bristol West (formerly) | Item on Payment Card deemed not payable by IPSA, because it is not allowable under our rules | Const Office Tel. Usage/Rental | £13.50 |
| Overspend on 2013-14 Office Costs | n/a | £195.68 | |||
| Stewart Jackson | Conservative | Peterborough | MP selected ‘not claimed – to repay’ when submitting this item they purchased on the Payment Card, but haven’t yet returned the funds to us. | Parking | £7.50 |
| Tim Yeo | Conservative | South Suffolk (formerly) | Duplicate claim | Health and Welfare Costs | £10.00 |
| Tobias Ellwood | Conservative | Bournemouth East | Claim for an item which was ineligible under our Scheme rules | Food & Drink | £5.00 |
| Duplicate claim | Public Tr RAIL – RTN | £17.00 | |||
| MP selected ‘not claimed – to repay’ when submitting this item they purchased on the Payment Card, but haven’t yet returned the funds to us. | Parking | £4.50 |
Image Credit – Westminster Palace and London Eye, November 2007 by Herry Lawford
