Gravy train

All MPs except those who represent inner London seats are entitled to an allowance for accommodation in london. Theoretically, an MP could use this for paying rent or hotel bills but most use it to pay off a mortgage for a Central London apartment. I don't know how much this allowance comes to but a reasonable guess would be about £15,000 a year. If 600 MPs use this allowance, that comes to a £9m annual bill - and i reckon I've underestimated the size of that allowance.

Fair enough, MPs need somewhere to live while they are away from home; but when these MPs lose their seats, they don't give the apartment back to the Palace, they keep it or sell it and keep the profit. This is a well-known perk of being an MP and they are resistant to having it scrutinised.

It would be more sensible for the Palace to have a property arm that maintained a stock of apartments for MPs to use while in office and which would be passed back to the House of Commons authorities on their retirement from Parliament. Eventually, all the financing for the apartments would be paid off and the only costs would be for maintenance.

And with the money the Palace saves, they could pay staff more - or even give some back to the taxpayer!