Trains, planes and automobiles – MPs’ cost revealed
MPs claimed £4.5 million in travel expenses last year, with road travel accounting for almost half of this.
Some £2 million was spent on the roads in the 2005-6 tax year once government cars, taxis, car hire and mileage expenses were combined.
The heaviest road user was Labour’s Janet Anderson – who claimed expenses for 60,448 miles on political business. That is the equivalent to five and a half hours on the roads on business every single day, at an average speed of 30 miles per hour, and at £16,612 was the biggest payout for road travel by more than £4,500.
Train travel accounted for £1.5 million in total, with former health secretary Alan Milburn topping the table with a claim of £16,782 in a year.
Around £1 million was spent on flights, with Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael – MP for Orkney and Shetland – unsurprisingly claiming the most at £34,347.
The top five largest claims for air travel all came from MPs with constituencies in Scotland or Northern Ireland.
The cycling figures show that despite being a high-profile advocate of cycling, Tory leader David Cameron claimed nothing for his frequent trips to Westminster. He did claim £1,094 in car hire and taxi fares, £210 in mileage, £295 in air fares, and £224 in train tickets.
Lib Dem leader Menzies Campbell claimed £9,267 in air fares, £3,395 on car miles and £787 on rail travel, although the distance between Westminster and his North East Fife constituency explain a good deal of this.
Tony Blair was one of the lowest claimants, asking for just £202 in mileage over the year, however most of his expenses are covered by the government or the Labour party.
Gordon Brown – MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath – claimed £6,953 for air travel, £478 in rail fares and £178 for car use.
The largest claim was made by Labour MP for Falkirk Eric Joyce – who claimed a total of £44,985.
By contrast government ministers Margaret Beckett and Stephen Timms – along with Conservative MP Andrew Pelling – claimed nothing in travel expenses.
The figures have been released after a two-year campaign by Lib Dem MP Norman Baker.
“This is an important victory in the battle to make parliament and the use of public money more accountable to the people,” he said.
“I am absolutely delighted to have won my case on the matter and think the figures make very interesting reading.
“I hope that now this information is in the public domain it will entail both a downward pressure on overall expenditure and also make MPs think twice about the environmental impact of their journeys and how it could be lessened.”
