How much public money is paid to EWAS Conservatives?

After reading THIS article in the Guardian, I thought that I'd have a look at whether the practice of MPs renting office space from their own local parties was going on here.

Here's what I found.

EWAS Conservatives give their address as 88a High St Shoreham By Sea, the office above what used to be the Lazy Toad, which has now changed it's name to "Piston Broke", which some might find appropriate to apply to some of our local Tories, and others have complained about bringing the tone of the high street down with a sign that if read out loud, could sound a bit rude. I have a bit of a problem with the sign myself, as it clearly depicts a broken con-rod rather than a broken piston, but there you go.

Here's their contact details:

This is the same address that our MP, Tim Loughton gives as his constituency office, so they clearly share this space between them. I looked at the IPSA website to have a better look at this arrangement.

Here's the released rental details:

So, it appears that he does rent his "constituency office" from the local Tory party. I'm not sure what he gets for the money, because all that seems to be in evidence is an answerphone and public surgeries held one evening a month.

How much does this cost, you ask? Well so far this year we have these figures available:

It looks on the face of it to be £700 a month, and the totals paid to the local party in exchange for the use of a desk and an the space for an answerphone (the cost of this is claimed separately) for the years making up this Parliament are as follows.

2010-2011  - £8,264.52
2011-2012  - £8,400.00
2012-2013  - £7,000.00
2013-2014  - £2,100.00 so far.

So that makes £25,764.52, that has been paid directly into the coffers of the local Tory Party from public funds and by the end of this Parliament in 2015 that figure will top £30k.

Bearing in mind that this cost does not include bills, stationery, newspapers, telephone, internet, or computer costs, it seems like quite a raw deal for us the public, who are footing this bill. I've had a look round the local business premises costs and for £700 a month you could get a damn site more than a desk in a shared office above a pub, but I guess that would have to be paid to someone other than the MPs own party.

Obviously there is a need for MPs to have a base in their constituency, but as we already pay for a second home for these people, that should serve this purpose without the need for a separate office, otherwise we are paying for their home, office and travel costs, as well as all the other cash they can skim off. Why should we be paying for their telephone and internet costs for their homes, when they have already been provided with a suitable office, both in Parliament and their constituency?

In the case of our Timbo, he claims for a second home, and this office, and yet still claims £25 every time he visits his office from his primary home in Burgess Hill (which was his second home until a couple of years ago) and more when he travels from his second home in Westminster (which used to be his primary home, even though his family never resided there).

Obviously the best answer to these problems would be for local council's to provide a small office within their building, and bill central government at a fixed rate for this, and for MPs who choose not to have a fixed base in their constituency to be refused the travel claims in order to visit their own office. Normal people don't get paid to travel to work, so why should MPs?

If the local Tory Party is being directly funded with public monies then this equates to a distinctly unfair advantage over any opposing party, and the potential that there could be a very valid reason why sitting MPs are at an advantage over challengers during general elections as extra cash allows extra publicity and public meetings and other promotional tools. This is one of the reasons that I, personally am in support of the campaign to encourage people not to vote for any sitting MP, in order to have a complete clear out of the current batch of self serving trough snafflers. But you should vote for who you think is best, but be sure to see what the one you already have has been up to for the previous Parliament, and Id recommend the IPSA website, here's the section for East Worthing and Shoreham Constituency you can see exactly what we're paying our MP on top of his already quite generous salary. I was quite surprised at what he doesn't pay for, some of us have to pay our own heating bills, buy our own newspapers, and pay for our own fares to work, but it appears that Timmy claims for petrol to drive to the station, then claims for the parking at the station, as well as the rail fare, it's a different world.

Take care, and control
K