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The Independent Parliament Standards Authority (Ipsa) has announced that the cost of replacing over 2,000 MPs and political personnel following the 2024 general election hit £52.8m. Almost all of this expenditure was used to close the offices of former MPs and to establish those of newly elected MPs. Moreover, over a third of the total amount was spent on giving redundancy packages to staff. Ipsa’s most recent report argues that the Labour’s landslide victory at the election – which saw 350 MPs leave office – constituted a ‘once in a generation event’.
The report also outlines how 2,373 individuals lost their jobs as a result of the election. More specifically, this included 2,023 personnel who worked for MPs who neither regained their seat, nor stood for re-election. Such a level of turnover significantly increased the expenses required to support those who found themselves jobless; this cost was up to 286% higher than it had been following the previous general election in 2019. The overall expenses involved included terminating rental agreements, settling debts which were owed and compensating staff who were made redundant.
Members of Parliament themselves were entitled to a loss-of-office payment equal to twice the legal minimum if they met two criteria: having lost their seats and having served as MPs for at least two years. MPs who decided not to stand for re-election were also entitled to a similar type of payment, known as a “winding up” payment, equivalent to four months’ salary. As of April 2024, the annual basic salary for an MP was £91,346.
This payment was intended to compensate MPs for the time they spent closing down their offices, which had to be completed within the four months following the election. At the same time, they could also claim expenses related to this process. The Ipsa report adds that the average redundancy payment made per MP was £35,200 – this represented a significant increase on the average payment of £19,900 following the 2019 election. The post-election closure deadline for MPs was 4 November 2024.
Commenting on the findings, Ipsa chair Richard Lloyd argued that “an MP’s office is like a small business”. He went on to say that Ipsa was “proud of its role in supporting a representative Parliament where people without private finances shouldn’t be prevented from becoming an MP – or working for one”. Ipsa was established in response to the expenses scandal which rocked Parliament in 2009. Today, it oversees MPs’ pay and expenses, including the salaries of those who work for them
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