Wannabe Tory leader Adam Afriyie has claimed it is “impossible” to raise a family on £67,000 — suggesting instead that MPs should not be given a salary and audited expenses but an “allowance” of up to £225,000 to spend however they want.

In an interview with Chat Politics, the Windsor MP — a multimillionaire through technology businesses — whinges:

“It is almost impossible to operate on the salary that is given to MPs if you come from a middle income family

Citing the damage caused by the expenses scandal — but forgetting public revulsion at the ‘no receipts’ system for food — Afriyie suggests that MPs should instead be given a set allowance each year to cover all costs:

“In 1911 … MPs were given an allowance of £400 per year. If it had been uprated according to various different indexes, guess how much that figure would be today? £225,000. “In my dream world of the future we’ll have, again, a simple members allowance which is substantially higher than it is today … We started at that £400, so let’s work out what that means today

With ideas like this it’s little surprise his leadership ambitions went tits up.