MP - expenses - first class travel

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From The Mirror

Luxury-loving politicians claimed £63,000 of first-class train tickets on expenses in two months.

Taxpayers footed the bill for top-flight journeys made by 115 MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament), figures from watchdog IPSA show.

Tory Anne Marie Morris claimed the most back with £2,842 for 11 first-class trips between her constituency in Newton Abbot, South Devon, and London.

Each ticket averaged more than £285 – while standard fares for the journey can be £55 to £75 when bought in advance.

etc

The article goes on to highlight some other MPs.

I have to disagree with the implication that at advance ticket would be an alternative.   As I understand it, MPs have little way of knowing their exact travel plans well in advance and it's not realistic to ask them to wait around to travel on their timed ticket.

As a separate discussion point, I have also travelled with an MP (met him at the station) in standard in a full and standing HST^▸ (High Speed Train) and I would suggest he might have been better seated in first and reading papers or even resting to arrive fresh in London.

"Luxury-Loving"?  They may be, but the decision to travel on a flexible ticket is hardly proof of that, is it?

[Mark A]

Er... luxury... are there hidden compartments in a GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.) that we don't know about?

Mark

*Can say it's definitely not in the hall-of-mirrors food prep area 'cos, when they were first introduced, and unfamiliar with the trains and attempting to make my way aft to my booked seat in the not-platformed other half of a pair of 2x5 carriage sets I ended up in there for at least 30 seconds at St Erth before the uncharacteristically flustered on-train staff threw me out.

[TaplowGreen]

From The Mirror

Luxury-loving politicians claimed £63,000 of first-class train tickets on expenses in two months.

Taxpayers footed the bill for top-flight journeys made by 115 MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament), figures from watchdog IPSA show.

Tory Anne Marie Morris claimed the most back with £2,842 for 11 first-class trips between her constituency in Newton Abbot, South Devon, and London.

Each ticket averaged more than £285 – while standard fares for the journey can be £55 to £75 when bought in advance.

etc

The article goes on to highlight some other MPs.

I have to disagree with the implication that at advance ticket would be an alternative.   As I understand it, MPs have little way of knowing their exact travel plans well in advance and it's not realistic to ask them to wait around to travel on their timed ticket.

As a separate discussion point, I have also travelled with an MP (met him at the station) in standard in a full and standing HST^▸ (High Speed Train) and I would suggest he might have been better seated in first and reading papers or even resting to arrive fresh in London.

"Luxury-Loving"?  They may be, but the decision to travel on a flexible ticket is hardly proof of that, is it?

Some of our esteemed statesmen of course eschew such taxpayer funded luxury and make do with sitting on the floor............

[ChrisB]

....of course, we must not forget that it was subsequently proved there *were* available seats that he could have sat in....

[TaplowGreen]

....of course, we must not forget that it was subsequently proved there *were* available seats that he could have sat in....

There were seats for the many, not the few.

[JayMac]

....of course, we must not forget that it was subsequently proved there *were* available seats that he could have sat in....

For "proved" read "disputed".

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traingate

[JayMac]

Of course, if you can hawk yourself for extracurricular activities to the tune of £10,000 a day then there's no need to claim 1st Class train travel on expenses.

Not that that would stop the grubby attempts at enrichment by the likes of Matt Hancock and Kwasi Kwarteng. It's high time MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament) were only permitted to be MPs. No moonlighting. Don't like that? Don't stand.

[ChrisB]

....of course, we must not forget that it was subsequently proved there *were* available seats that he could have sat in....

For "proved" read "disputed".

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traingate

For "disputed" read "I didn't state what I meant - that there weren't two seats together" which is totally different.

He explained that "Yes, I did walk through the train. Yes, I did look for two empty seats together so I could sit down with my wife, to talk to her. That wasn't possible so I went to the end of the train.", adding that at first the train manager had offered to upgrade him to First Class, before allocating him some seats which he was able to take after 42 minutes

I can well believe that there weren't two seats together. But I note there was no video/claim that his wife was sat on the floor with him, so presumably, she took one of the empty single seats which then he could have done too?

[Bob_Blakey]

Any and all publicly funded (=taxpayer funded) services should be provided at the lowest possible reasonable cost. In the vast majority of instances non-London MP^▸ (Member of Parliament)'s will know quite some time in advance when they will be travelling to and from the capital. I do not accept that there is any justification for charging 1st class tickets to the public purse, standard class accommodation provides sufficient room, and privacy, to work on stuff like email and general correspondence. Nobody with a modicum of intelligence would work with confidential material on a train journey.

[broadgage]

I thought that MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament) were no longer allowed to travel first class at the public expense, this being prohibited after the expenses scandal involving moat cleaning and floating duck houses etc.
Yet these reports suggest otherwise.

[onthecushions]

I an entirely in favour of MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament)' travel expenses being for full fare first class journeys.

It is more money for the railway and displays to law- and budget-setters the best the railway can do. It also represents the value the public should put on their elected representatives.

If the fares are too high then they are too high for everyone.

I do not want my MP hanging around in the station buffet waiting for the first off-peak service, or frittering his evenings away looking for split or advanced tickets.

I also do not want my MP, having arrived first class at Paddington, then to go on to spend the day moonlighting at £10k/day.

OTC

[ellendune]

I do not accept that there is any justification for charging 1st class tickets to the public purse, standard class accommodation provides sufficient room, and privacy, to work on stuff like email and general correspondence. Nobody with a modicum of intelligence would work with confidential material on a train journey.

I find it very difficult to work on my laptop in a standard class aircraft type seat as either my arms are too long or the seats are too close together.  Also I did no work (with or without a laptop) on my very expensive standard class peak hour journeys last week as I had to stand all the way from Swindon to Paddington and from Paddington to Reading on the way back.  

[PrestburyRoad]

I want my MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) to be able to work while travelling.  On a less-busy journey they may be able to do this perfectly well in a standard-class airline-type seat; on some journeys they may only be able to work in first-class.

[broadgage]

I have no objection to MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament) travelling first class on the railway. Use of trains should be encouraged as a greener alternative to flying or driving.
I also have no objection to MPs working providing that any such employment is declared and is a matter of public record. Any such outside employment should also be declared whenever the MP speaks in the house on any relevant subject.

[TaplowGreen]

I an entirely in favour of MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament)' travel expenses being for full fare first class journeys.

It is more money for the railway and displays to law- and budget-setters the best the railway can do. It also represents the value the public should put on their elected representatives.

If the fares are too high then they are too high for everyone.

I do not want my MP hanging around in the station buffet waiting for the first off-peak service, or frittering his evenings away looking for split or advanced tickets.

I also do not want my MP, having arrived first class at Paddington, then to go on to spend the day moonlighting at £10k/day.

OTC

A fully flexible full fare 1st class return from (for example)

London to Exeter is over £400

The fares may indeed be too high for everyone, but everyone does not have their tickets paid for by the taxpayer  - on a railway already in receipt of massive subsidies.

Given your desire for your MP to have the best of everything in this respect (at the taxpayers expense), how would you suggest it enables them to empathise with their constituents own experience?