RateYourMP

Find, Rate, Compare & Share your MP's Performance

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Uh oh - we weren’t expecting that!

So we are having another General Election in a few weeks - eek!

We had retired to our day jobs for a while not expecting to pick up our MP Data mining shovels until early 2020. We realise many of you will be wanting to view your own MP’s track record since 2015 and compare them with their colleagues and peers. We’d hate to disappoint so hang in there while we fire up the servers, bring the spreadsheets up from their cryogenic stasis and we will be with you in a bit.

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Our initial post-General Election update is now live.

We’ve added in all the new MPs, along with those that have returned allowing you to rate them in this Parliament. We will begin to add in performance data for them as it becomes available.

You can still find and view your MPs performance from the last Parliament. We’ve also added a link into them from the current MPs profile.

IPSA also released a new set of expense data up till Jan 31st 2015, so we’ve updated your previous MPs costs and voting data. This will have affected their standings in our MPIndex. We won’t have the complete costs picture for 2010-2015 until September which is when IPSA will publish them.

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We show you what  your MP - who lost their seat last Thursday - is about to receive

Using our unique MP database we've been able to build some initial analysis and a detailed table of the 94 MPs that lost their seats.

You can see the full examination here

Having inwardly digested the latest (7th) edition of the riveting 2015-16 Annual Review of the MPs’ Scheme of Expenses and Costs Publication we have been able to calculate the “resettlement” payment long serving MPs are entitled to (1 months basic pay for each completed year of service up to a maximum of 6 months). We include the 3months of  ministerial pay former MPs who were also ministers when they lost their seats are due to receive. 

Nothing is quite as straightforward as we would have liked - so several questions had to be addressed to the independent standard authority (IPSA) which overseas payouts to MPs when it came to who and how much some MPs are entitled to. 

Sinn Fein’s  Michelle Gildernew receives no salary (no Sinn Fein MP does) so we got IPSA to confirm that 6 months of £0 salary does mean she will  receive £0 in resettlement

George Galloway (Respect) who had accumulated well over 20years of MP service will have his resettlement payout reviewed according to IPSA as he was last elected only 3 years ago after a gap of 2 years- he received a payout when he lost his Bethnal Green and Bow seat in 2010

Mark Reckless may indeed live up to his name by standing down last year as Conservative Member for Rochester & Strood to seek re-election as a UKIP MP. He interrupted his 5 years service since his initial election in 2010 and thus IPSA will review his resettlement payment as he has not completed a complete year since his last election.

Vince Cable whilst able to receive his full MP resettlement payment, will due to his age (being over 65), not be able to receive the 3 months additional ministerial pay as Secretary of State for Business, unlike his 11 fellow Ministers who lost their seats will receive. 

As the office of an MP is essentially a small business, they can also claim against a special “Winding Up” budget. The maximum amount each MP can spend is £53,950 unless classed as one of the 97 London constituencies in which case there is an additional £3,200. This is used to close down their Westminster and constituency offices, pay their staff up till July (though any redundancy owed to MP staff comes from a separate uncapped IPSA budget)

To give some context we’ve also added what each MP has declared in financial interests since the last General election in 2010 - excluding donations to charity or to their party. As you will see some are far more likely to be keen to find new employment than others!

You can see our examination report here

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Whilst we work on updating our data - here are some less well known comparisons of the MPs we have lost and those we have gained......

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Short blog - lots to do today!

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There is nobody here at the moment - we are out voting!

We are having a bit of a break today - because why would you want to Rate your MP when you can step out and actually vote for them !

We will be back Friday when we begin to update the site with new and returning MPs.  Shortly you’ll be able to compare former MPs metrics with their new replacements, or if the incumbent is returned you will be able to monitor how they do this term vs last.

There won’t be any cost or voting data for the 2015-2020 Parliamentary term for a little but we will continue to bring you cost data for former MPs as they continue to get published up until September 2015, with resettlement pay & winding up expenses still to factor in. 

Until a new government is formed all the current ministers continue to receive their ministerial salaries. Depending how long it takes for a new government to be put together, the current coalition ministers carry on earning this on top of their basic MP salary. 

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Welcome to the age of the £1million MP

Following on from our last blog on the rise and rise of MPs staff costs, we are estimating that the average final cost per MP for the 2010-2015 Parliamentary term will be in excess of £1.1million per MP - once winding up costs and severance pay is factored in.

We won’t have the final total until September 2015 (yes that's in 4months time !) as MPs that did not stand or failed to retain their seat in the election have 2 months after May 7th to empty their Westminster office, close down their constituency office,  make their staff redundant and file those last business costs and expenses.

Whilst there have been plenty of headlines and twitterstorms over MPs claims over personal expenses, be it poppy wreaths or rent on second homes, we have not seen any major increase in the total for these categories since 2010. 

The most significant spend is MPs staff - these are the caseworkers and office managers that an MP can employ to help them. We would expect MPs who do employ a number of experienced staff to be very responsive to their constituents in terms of surgeries, email and letter replies and helping their boss (the MP) to manage their time effectively. We hope to give indications of this in the future.

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IPSA Announces changes to MP Business Costs & Expenses Scheme for 2015-16

On the day the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority publishes its scheme for the new financial year RateYourMP.com takes a look at whats been paid out over the past 4.5 years and speculates at how much the final 2010-15 bill will come to - we are estimating the last 6months for now as these wont be published until well after the election and will include MP winding up costs and Resettlement payments (more analysis on these to come later!)

Whilst plenty of focus has been levied at MP’s accommodation, travel and miscellaneous claims from inappropriate hotel bills to poppy wreaths, we can see that those areas are both small and relatively flat over the last 5 years - From our breakdown of costs shown above is obvious that the key driver is Staff costs which - excluding 2010 which does not show a full financial year - has increased +10% year on year. 

Some of those MPs that have claimed the most on Staffing costs (available data is up to Nov 31 2014) are David Lammy,  Barry Gardiner, Chuka Umunna,  Tessa Jowell & Glenda Jackson

For context the average Staffing costs claim across all MPs is currently  £427,354 and Philip Hollobone - former MP for Kettering - has yet to claim any staffing costs at all.

To clarify Staffing Expenditure may be used to meet the following costs: 

staff salaries, employers' contributions to National Insurance and employers' contributions to pension schemes; 

payments to pooled staffing resources; 

payments for bought-in services; 

overtime payments, to the extent that these are specified in staff terms and conditions; 

payments for childcare vouchers for staff or other payments by way of salary sacrifice schemes; 

modest reward and recognition payments (but these may not be claimed in respect of any connected parties); 

one-off health and welfare costs associated with provision of staffing support, such as eyesight tests and occupational health assessments; 

costs associated with apprenticeships that meet the standards of the National Apprenticeship Service;

the incidental expenses of volunteers 

where the MP expects the Office Costs Expenditure budget to be exhausted, employment practice liability insurance and staff training costs. 

In 2015-16 IPSA has announced the Staffing Expenditure budget has been increased by 1% to £147,000 for London Area MPs and £140,000 for non-London Area MPs, to reflect the wider public sector pay policy. 

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People talking about us

Will experience as an MP be an advantage or disadvantage when it comes to the election trail?

BBC Election 2015 - 11th April 2015

Michael Ellis - Former MP for Northampton - "At a time when people are very sceptical about politicians generally I think it is quite useful for the electorate to be able to look back at their performance," -  He points to his record on the Rate Your MP website, where he is ranked fourth in terms of frequency of voting and 13th "most value for money" MP.

Wycombe man invites public to 'Rate Your MP' with new website

Bucks Free Press - 13th March 2015

... It's very difficult to do a complete 'apples for apples' comparison for every MP, but that is not to say you can't have a go.....Anything that aids scrutiny and transparancy should be seen as a good thing.....

Stephen Mosley - Former MP for The City of Chester

ChesterMP.com - 11th March 2015

“The challenge for Government and all political parties lies in breaking through that disconnect and getting more people involved in the political process. RateYourMP is a great idea and provides an innovative new way for voters to keep track of their elected representatives and could go a long way to bridging the gap and achieving just that.”

New RateYourMP website reveals £3.6m cost of Tories Mark Prisk, Sir Oliver Heald, Sir Alan Haselhurst and Robert Halfon

Herts & Essex Observer - 2nd March 2015

Sir Oliver Heald said of the website and similar online resources: "They give some insights, but I think voters have a pretty good idea anyway of whether or not they have a hard working and effective MP."

[rateyourmp]

Zero hours all right for some

While the debate rages among the party leaders and candidates about zero-hour contracts, a surprising 86 of their former colleagues are earning almost £265 a day for officially working zero hours.

The figure has been highlighted by Peter Williams, the co-founder of a new web site Rate Your MP that is benchmarking and costing MP performance.  Williams points out that last Monday, the House of Commons official Twitter feed proclaimed - 'Parliament has dissolved. There are no MPs until after the general election on May 7’ - yet all the ex-MPs continue to be paid, even those standing down and not seeking re-election.

“There are 564 former members standing again for Parliament,” he says, “but they are now officially simply candidates – they can no longer describe themselves as Members of Parliament.  They will however, continue to receive their salary right through to polling day and even at just the basic MP salary the amount being paid to those candidates is close to £4.2million."  

But it is not those members standing again that first caught Williams’ attention, it was those standing down.

“I do think it’s surprising that the 86 members of Parliament not seeking re-election - effectively retiring from the House - will also continue to be paid right through to May 7 despite the fact that Parliament is closed and they can no longer fully represent their constituents.”   He calculates that these particularly retirees or job-seekers will earn around £265 per day and collectively cost the taxpayer almost £650,000 during the campaign.

MPs standing down can also claim expenses until July to meet the costs of “closing down their office” - despite the fact that in many cases they have known for months that they would not be seeking re-election. Those costs will not be publicly available until September.

The former MPs job seeker allowance of close to £265 per day compares to actual maximum job seeker allowance of £72.40 per week.  At £1,320.08 per week the MP allowance is a little more than 18 times higher.  Among the more prominent members standing down are former ministers such as William Hague, Jack Straw, Francis Maude, David Blunkett, Menzies Campbell, Tessa Jowell, Malcolm Rifkind and former PM Gordon Brown.

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MPs claim £180,480.23 worth of congestion charges & tolls 

According to our latest analysis of the outgoing Parliament’s expense data, this is the amount paid out to MPs & family dependants for London Congestion charge, motorway & bridge tolls on journeys to and from Westminster in the past four and a half years [MP expense data is only available up till November of last year - we wont have the full 5 year picture for you until September as MPs, even those who are not returned or standing again can claim costs & expenses up till July]. 

Granted, they have had to pay back a total of £1,413.80 of that due mainly to insufficient evidence or duplicate claims but that still leaves a hefty £179,066.43.This doesn't include congestion charges and tolls paid our to MP staff which would add another £7,600 to the bill.

Top of the payouts has been to MPs all of whom are standing for re-election on May 7th.  Margaret Beckett, MP for Derby South who has received almost £6,400 has a journey from her constituency office to Westminster of approximately 129 miles. All her claims were for the London congestion charge. She ranks 319th in terms of cost per vote.   

Next is David Wright who is ranked 89th out of 650 currently on our MPIndex who has received almost £4,500 since 2010 in Congestion zone and toll reimbursement. Though some of his claims have been grouped confusingly with Utility bills. 

Mark Tami, the  MP for Alyn & Deeside in Wales, some 200 miles from Westminister is 3rd having received almost £4,400 for congestion zone and M6 toll claims.

Its not only MPs living hundreds of miles away who have received significant payments. One MP, whose constituency in Lambeth is less that 7miles from the House of Commons has clocked up almost £1,000 worth of London congestion zone charge payments. This is in addition to receiving the London living allowance of £3,760 per year intended to contribute towards the additional expenses of living in the London Area or of commuting regularly to the London Area.

It should be noted that some MPs who have hybrid cars or have a disabled blue badge are exempt from the congestion zone charge. 

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The total estimated gross basic MP wage bill between now and the general election (incumbent MPs get paid up to and including polling day) will be in excess of £4,820,000. 

Now that Parliament has ceased to sit and MPs have been locked out of their Westminster offices and parliamentary email addresses in a bid to make sure they have no unfair advantage over any other parliamentary candidates, they continue to receive their MP salary as usual while they are out seeking to hold on to their old jobs.

Meanwhile, 86 of the current crop of 650 MPs have already declared that they will not be standing for re-elections receiving a total of almost £650k in gross salary before their replacements, whoever they maybe take over. Whilst these MPs may feel obliged to continue to represent the constituents that sent them to Westminster almost 5 years ago, they have stopped being an MP, but are still being paid as one. Some may assist their party political colleagues to retain their seats, but the others will be either preparing to settle into retirement or out job hunting.

[rateyourmp]

How are  MPs in the Bristol Area doing when it comes to comparing their costs and voting attendance?

Whilst the current Parliament official ceased yesterday, we will have to wait until September to see a final set of complete 2014-15 cost figures published by IPSA the independent body that is responsible for MP pay, expenses and allowances.  Until then we will, every couple of months, see further publications of our old MPs claims. The current data takes us up to the end of November 2014.

MPs in and around Bristol may never have seen themselves this way before.The Second Deputy Speaker, Dawn Primarolo, earns a considerable Ministerial Salary (£36,360) on top of the basic MP gross annual salary of £67 office running costs in this Parliament are over £175,000 more than Jacob Rees-Mogg’s. Only four Bristol area MPs overall costs are below the Commons average for the current Parliament. As well as the aforementioned J.Rees-Mogg, John Penrose, Chris Skidmore and Jack Lopresti managed to achieve this by mainly having lower office running costs and broadly claiming less than the Commons avergae for the past 4.5year.

As well as tracking MP costs we also measure how often then vote in the House of Commons. We use this to generate a simple Cost Per Vote metric which makes it easier and broadly fair to compare not just within Bristol but for all MPs. We can see that the majority in the area are below the average across all 650 MPs. Dr Liam Fox & Prof. Steve Webb are  exceptions to that with Jack Lopresti being virtually on the average.

Click the chart above for the list of linked Bath-area constituencies

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How are Hampshire MPs doing?

MPs in Hampshire may never have seen themselves this way before. Allowing for Michael Thornton, who has only been in office since the by-election in Feb 2013 Penny Mordaunt's office running costs in this Parliament are over £270,000 more than Desmond Swayne's. Only four Hampshire MPs overall costs are above the Commons average for the current Parliament. George Young tops the chart at £1,053,000 since May 2010.George Hollingbery manages to keep his expenses (mainly Travel& Accommodation) to under £10,000 whilst 5 other Hampshire MPs are over £100,000 more than that, like Caroline Dinenage. As well as tracking MP costs we also measure how often then vote in the House of Commons. We use this to generate a simple Cost Per Vote metric which makes it easier and broadly fair to compare not just within Hampshire but for all MPs. We can see that the majority in the area are below the average across all 650 MPs.Mike Hancock, David Willetts & John Denham being the exceptions.    

Click the chart above for the list of linked Hampshire constituencies 

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How are Oxfordshire MPs doing?

MPs in Oxfordshire may never have seen themselves this way before. The good news as you can see from the chart above is that Oxfordshire has three MPs who are below the average of all 650 in the House of Commons in terms of their demands on the public purse. Dr John Howell, Sir Tony Baldrey and Nicola Blackwood all come in under the £940,916 HoC average for this Parliament so far. As well as tracking MP costs we also measure how often they vote in the House of Commons. We use this to generate a simple Cost Per Vote metric which makes it easier and broadly fair to compare not just within Oxfordshire but for all MPs. We can see that the majority are below the Commons average . Edward Vaizey and David Cameron being the only exceptions driven by higher overall costs and lower voting records.

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Chris Kelly has the most PM Accommodation Rent in West Midlands

The Conservative MP for Dudley South had emerged as the top spending politicianson the region on accommodation expenses.

According to IndependentParliamentary Standards Authority data, Chris Kelly was the MP who spent thebiggest amount of money in accommodation rent between 2014 and 2015 with a total amount of £13395.82. On the previous year (period 2013-2014) the Dudley South MP spent an even bigger amount of money on accommodation, £18558.18. Although was not first on the list since Richard Burden (MP for Birmingham Northfield) spent £19159.98 and Ian Austin (MP for Dudley North) spent £19038.84.

Chris Kelly, born in 1978, is a Dudley South MP. He was selected as Conservative Parliamentary Spokesman for Dudley South in September 2007 and afterwards elected as the new Member of Parliament in May 2010.

He is the founder Chairman of both the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Family Business and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Combating Metal Theft. Kelly will be standing down at the 2015 general election.

In 2013-2014 the amount available to Chris Kelly to be spent on accommodation was £19.474.00 so at the end of the year he still had 915.82 on his remaining budget to be spent on accommodation. The reason for the set budget is standard budget for renting a property in London Area, reduced by £626.00 to offset an overspend in a previous year according to IPSA statistics.

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https://rateyourmp.com/mp/2090/Mr-Chris-Kelly

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Latest MP Performance data refresh

Since the publication of the latest MP business costs & expense claims from the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) we have now been able to update all our MP performance data. This includes all associated cost and voting data.

The latest paid office running costs, travel & accommodation expenses from IPSA are added to our pro rata calculated basic MP & Ministerial gross salaries along with relevant Committee Chair and London Area Living Payments to build up an overall cost per MP.

We also count the number of times an MP casts his or her vote in the House of Commons. These “division” votes have also now been updated in line with the cost data to the end of November 2014. You can find your MPs latest voting behaviour at publicwhip.org.uk

We keep a running total of MP Costs and Voting metrics since the beginning of this Parliament back on May 7th 2010. We will be using this as a benchmark to compare the next Parliament with this one.

We will be doing this every 2 months in line with IPSA’s publication schedule. The next is planned for May.