On Wednesday (28th March), the House of Commons will debate the latest in a series of measures that will skew individual constituencies in the next General Election in favour of the incumbents.
LABOUR MPs SEE THE NEW £10,000 ALLOWANCE AS A 'SAVE THEIR SEATS' LIFELINE
MPs will decide whether to vote themselves an additional £10,000 per annum communications allowance. My colleague Julie Kirkbride MP told the Commons when this was first given an airing in November, that this is an exercise in “save our seats” for Labour MPs. Chris Chope MP called it a “propaganda allowance,” and it is being fiercely opposed by us on the Conservative side.
Constituency battles are already skewed in favour of incumbents in this country. Not as badly as, say, in the United States, but nevertheless challenging candidates of all parties reading this will know of their despair at seeing taxpayer-funded House of Commons letters to constituents from MPs and other forms of taxpayer-funded promotions which appear almost identical to publications direct from the political parties.
Readers will be aware of the recent scandals of MPs’ postage expenses, even before this new £10,000 allowance is introduced. At present, average postage claims are about £4,000, but some Labour MPs claim far more. Hendon Labour MP Andrew Dismore claimed £25,146 last year, equal to sending 83,000 letters, or 612 for every day Parliament sat last year.
The new allowance, I am told by House of Commons staff, will include “proactive communications with constituents and others, newsletters, leaflets, annual reports and the postage for them. Royal Mail and paid leafletters would all be legitimate.” I expect that the challengers in marginal constituencies will be horrified. Taxpayers will develop an even dimmer view of how politicians spend their money and the overall expense bill of the House of Commons will go up by as much as £6,500,000 each year.
LABOUR MPs SITTING ON VULNERABLE MAJORITIES COULD GAIN A £30,000 TAXPAYER-PROVIDED FIGHTING FUND IF THE ELECTION IS 2010
If the next election is three years away, then each MP will have an additional £30,000 to spend. The ability of MPs to send out mass communications via the Royal Mail is a huge advantage to Labour MPs, who these days struggle to find activists on the street to do the deliveries for free.
If I were a Conservative challenger to either a Labour or LibDem MP, I would be rather worried right now. The opinion polls are starting to look good, and this is in no small part to David Cameron’s leadership. Thanks to the changes in the political scene since 2005, all parties are expecting the key battlegrounds at the next election to be Labour- and LibDem-held seats with majorities of between approximately 2,000 and 7,000.
To give the LibDems some credit, they are also opposed to these new communications allowances. Even some Labour MPs are opposed to them. Chris Mullin said in the November debate: “However, unless I am mistaken, there is no demand from them (his constituents) to receive glossy brochures through the post that contain 10, 16 or 20 photographs of their MP behaving like a fairy godmother. That is vanity publishing, and it should not be funded out of the public purse.”
Cllr Justin Tomlinson, "Labour's desperation to use tax-payers money to attempt to prop up their wafer thin majorities is nothing short of a disgrace. If we see this done in Swindon, we will not hesitate to highlight this gross waste of tax-payers money. If they are unable to raise enough money from their own members, then that should not be the problem of the tax-payer."
