Isle of Wight MP Bob Seely claimed more than £200,000 in expenses for the 2020-21 financial year.
Mr Seely's expenses — published yesterday (Thursday) — account for the MP's outlay up to and including March 2021.
A total spend of £203,246.20 saw an increase of around £6,000 from the previous year, when his costs totalled £197,358.61.
Notably, staff travel costs dropped from £6,200 to less than £600, while general staffing costs rose from around £148,000 to more than £163,500.
In response to the report, Mr Seely told Isle of Wight Radio:
“I keep my expenses as low as possible to ensure the best use of taxpayers money.
“During the pandemic, constituency casework increased dramatically and I was receiving in excess of a thousand emails a week relating to casework alone.
"Staffing costs increased to meet this demand and clearly staff travel during the same period decreased because of Covid restrictions and working from home guidance.”
A breakdown of Bob Seely's expenditure (previous year in parenthesis)
Accommodation — £13,397.96 (£15,416.48)
Travel — £5,196.12 (£5,614.69)
Office Costs — £20,529.76 (£21,972.33)
Staff travel — £596.13 (£6,191.30)
Staffing — £163,526.93 (£148,163.81)
Total spend — £203,246.20 (£197,358.61)
Other notable expenses
TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) analysis released by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) revealed the average cost of an MP has increased by 29 per cent, from £157,747 in 2019-20 to £203,880 in 2020-21.
The total cost of MPs’ expenses was up 4.6 per cent on the previous year to £132.5 million, including claims for travel and food of over £2 million.
A further £283,361 was spent as part of the MPs’ accommodation budget on hotel claims for just 49 members, an average of £5,783 each.
The member for Broxtowe, Darren Henry, is Britain’s most expensive MP, with a total cost of £280,936. The least expensive MP was Philip Hollobone, the member for Kettering, whose cost came to £80,709.
Minister of state for crime and policing, Kit Malthouse, is the most expensive MP who attends cabinet, with a total of £244,312. This was compared to £178,406 for the prime minister Boris Johnson and £168,019 for Sir Keir Starmer.
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said:
"It’s important MPs have the resources to do their jobs, but many taxpayers will be worried about the soaring cost of politics.
“With taxpayers facing a cost of living crisis, politicians should be doing their utmost to keep their spending down.”
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