Ipsa says landslide election cost £52.8 million in staff turnover payments

The body that manages MPs’ salaries has revealed that the cost of replacing more than 2,000 MPs and political staff after the election has reached £52.8m.

Almost all of it was spent on closing the offices of former MPs and helping new MPs set up their own offices, with about a third of the total spent on redundancy payments to staff.

Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) report He said Labour’s landslide election was “a once-in-a-generation event” with 350 MPs quitting – more than at any general election in the last fifty years.

According to its report, this resulted in 2,373 people losing their jobs – including 2,023 staff who worked for MPs who either lost their seats or stood down.

Only 460 members of staff were effectively made redundant in the run-up to the 2019 election.

Ipsa, which is funded by public money through grants from the Treasury, said the “almost-unprecedented” turnover had helped drive up the cost of supporting people who have lost their jobs by 286%.

Costs included terminating rental agreements, settling outstanding payments and making staff redundant.

If MPs lost their seats and had been MPs for at least two years, they were themselves entitled to loss of office payments, set at twice the legal minimum.

All MPs who were either defeated or stepped down from office were also eligible for a so-called “termination” payment of four months’ salary. From April 2024, the basic annual salary of an MP is £91,346, including expenses.

This was to compensate for the time spent closing their offices, which was increased from two months to four months in this election. They can also claim costs during this period.

Ipsa said an average of £35,200 was spent per MP on redundancy payments to both MPs and their staff – up from an average of £19,900 in the 2019 election.

Richard Lloyd, chairman of Ipsa, said: “An MP’s office is like a small business. They are the employer, and any MP not returned in the 2024 general election will have to close their office completely by 4 November. “

He said: “Ipsa is proud of its role in supporting a representative Parliament, where people without private finances should not be prevented from becoming MPs or working for one.”

Established in the wake of the 2009 expenses scandal, Ipsa oversees the salaries and expenses of MPs, including the salaries of constituency workers, parliamentary assistants and other staff working for them.