Just for a little bit of fun, we thought we’d dig out how much money was claimed for accommodation last year by the 47 Labour MPs who couldn’t be bothered to turn up and vote to abolish the bedroom tax yesterday. (You can look up the data here.)

It was this much: £387,439.

That’s more than a third of a million pounds, paid by all of us, specifically for second homes so that MPs can be close to Parliament and attend votes there. It doesn’t include any of their other expenses. It only covers those 47 Labour MPs.

It’s an average of £8,243 each. It would pay the bedroom tax for a year for 532 people.

See if you can guess which piggy was the greediest out of the 47.

Yep. With a claim of £25,768 for a year’s bed and board in London, Anas Sarwar was head and shoulders into the trough before anyone else got a sniff. He was almost £3,000 ahead of the only other MP who claimed over £20,000 – Jonathan Ashworth of Leicester South – and nearly £6,000 above the third-highest (Meg Munn of Sheffield). Looks like the millionaire businessman’s son was brought up with expensive tastes.

(Anas’s total expenses were just shy of £60,000 on top of his £65,000 salary.)

Maybe we’re unreasonable. Maybe we shouldn’t expect someone trousering £125,000 of taxpayers’ money to turn up and vote on an issue this important when almost a fifth of that money has gone specifically on providing him with a nice little pied-a-terre in the capital to keep his commute to a minimum.

Do let us know if you think we’re being over-harsh.

.

——————————————————————-

The full breakdown is as follows, Scottish MPs in bold:



Diane Abbott £0

Debbie Abrahams £20,933

Bob Ainsworth £18,742

Douglas Alexander £0

Jonathan Ashworth £22,805

Ed Balls £0

Hugh Bayley £6,106

David Blunkett £13,374

Gordon Brown £0

Chris Bryant £19,914

Ann Coffey £9,569

Huw Irranca-Davies £19,597

Geraint Davies £11,121

Gloria De Piero £19,934

Jim Dobbin £37

Frank Dobson £0

Brian Donohoe £8,002

Frank Doran £12,858

Clive Efford £0

Frank Field £0

Paul Flynn £3,849

Mike Gapes £0

David Hamilton £19,890

Margaret Hodge £0

Jim Hood £6,322

George Howarth £7,581

Sian James £2,693

Alan Johnson £17,264

Tessa Jowell £0

Gerald Kaufman £4,246

Siobhan McDonagh £0

Ann McKechin £3,091

Alan Meale £7,296

Meg Munn £20,000

Jim Murphy £13,687

Pamela Nash £13,923

Dawn Primarolo £17,683

Joan Ruddock £0

Anas Sarwar £25,768

John Spellar £2,201

Gerry Sutcliffe £15,600

Chuka Umunna £0

Joan Walley £5,393

Dave Watts £3,042

Alan Whitehead £14,738

Shaun Woodward £0