Landslide election price £52.8m in workers turnover funds, Ipsa says

The price of changing greater than 2,000 MPs and political workers after the election reached £52.8m, the physique managing MPs’ pay has revealed.

Almost all of that was spent on closing down former MPs’ workplaces and serving to new MPs set theirs up, with round a 3rd of the overall spent on redundancy funds for workers.

The Unbiased Parliament Requirements Authority (Ipsa) report stated Labour’s landslide election had been a “as soon as in a era occasion” which noticed 350 MPs go away workplace – greater than at any common election within the final fifty years.

Based on its report, 2,373 individuals misplaced their job in consequence – together with 2,023 workers who labored for MPs who both misplaced their seat or stood down.

On the 2019 election solely 460 members of workers had been successfully made redundant.

Ipsa, which is funded by public cash by way of a grant from the Treasury, stated the “almost-unprecedented” turnover had helped push up the price of supporting those that misplaced their jobs by 286%.

Prices included ending rental agreements, settling excellent funds and making workers redundant.

MPs themselves had been entitled to a lack of workplace cost, set at twice the authorized minimal, in the event that they misplaced their seat and had been an MP for not less than two years.

All MPs who both misplaced or stood down had been additionally eligible for so-called “winding up” funds value 4 month’s wage. Since April 2024, the essential annual wage of a MP is £91,346, plus bills.

This was to compensate them for the time spent closing down their workplaces, which was prolonged at this election from two months to 4. They may additionally declare prices throughout this time.

Ipsa stated a mean of £35,200 was spent per MP on redundancy funds to each MPs and their workers – up from a mean of £19,900 on the 2019 election.

Ipsa’s chair Richard Lloyd stated: “An MP’s workplace is sort of a small enterprise. They’re the employer, and any MP not returned within the 2024 common election had till 4 November to shut down their workplace solely.”

He added: “Ipsa is happy with its position in supporting a consultant Parliament, the place individuals with out non-public funds should not be prevented from changing into an MP – or working for one.”

Established within the wake of the 2009 bills scandal, Ipsa oversees each MPs’ pay and bills, together with the salaries of the constituency caseworkers, parliamentary assistants and different workers that work for them.