The scale of payouts made to Members of Parliament following the recent general election has been laid bare, with departing politicians receiving a combined total exceeding £14 million in termination and office closure payments.
The Cost of Political Change
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa), the Commons spending watchdog, published its annual transparency data today, revealing the financial aftermath of the political upheaval that brought Sir Keir Starmer to power. The figures detail the substantial costs associated with the transition between Parliaments after a significant number of MPs left their posts.
According to the release, 216 MPs who fought and lost their seats became entitled to 'Loss of Office Payments' (LOOP). These payments, designed to support politicians as they transition out of their roles, are calculated as equivalent to two weeks of salary for every year of service, capped at a maximum of 20 years.
Breaking Down the Multi-Million Pound Payouts
The total shared among these 216 defeated MPs reached £3.77 million. Of this group, ten individuals received the maximum single payment of £42,000. Notable recipients of the highest payouts included Tory former Cabinet minister Damian Green and the long-serving Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, Khalid Mahmood.
In a separate but larger payout, a total of 347 departing MPs each received a 'winding up' payment of £30,448. This payment, available to all MPs whether they stood down voluntarily or were defeated, is intended to cover their salaries for a four-month period after they officially cease being MPs. This allowance was double the length of time provided at previous elections.
These departing members were also able to claim from standard expenses budgets to cover the costs of closing their constituency offices. Combined, these winding-up payments totalled a staggering £10.57 million.
Wider Impact: Staff Redundancies and Transition Costs
The human cost of the political change was also significant. Ipsa confirmed earlier this year that the 'almost unprecedented' turnover of MPs at the election led to more than 2,000 people losing their jobs.
Specifically, 2,023 people who worked for MPs were made redundant on July 5, the day their employers either stood down or were voted out. This figure was more than four times the number of staff redundancies recorded after the 2019 election.
The redundancy payments for these staff members accounted for approximately a quarter of the £52.8 million that Ipsa spent overall on managing the transition from one Parliament to the next, highlighting the extensive financial and personal impact of a major political shift.
