ANDOVER MP and policing minister Kit Malthouse cost the taxpayer more than the Prime Minister last year, new figures reveal.

The figures released by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) reveal that MP Kit Malthouse’s business costs for the 2020-21 financial year were £244,312.05, while Boris Johnson spent £178,406.

Business costs are the essential costs incurred by MPs while carrying out their parliamentary duties including staffing, office costs, and travel.

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Kit Malthouse, said: “All claims are within the budgets provided, and are scrutinised, and have to be validated, before payments are made with details then being published on the IPSA website.

"The vast majority of costs relate to my team of staff, who worked flat out to support me over the past 2 years in helping many thousands of constituents.”

MP's costs are broken down into categories and Mr Malthouse’s spending was up from £206,387.61 the year before and above the average (£203,880) for all other MP's.

The MP's biggest areas of cost included £192,906,09 on payroll, £28,569.29 on rent and £9,600.00 on brought-in services.

Kit Malthouse, who is the minister for crime reduction and policing, spent £26,600 of his accommodation budget, just £400 off the £27,000 allowed budget.

On top of this he forked out £217,600 on office running costs, including £192,900 on staff wages and £24,700 on other office expenditures.

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John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "It’s important MPs have the resources to do their jobs, but many taxpayers will be worried about the soaring cost of politics.

“The electorate expects politicians to stay grounded and keep costs under control, particularly given the Covid pandemic saw many MPs and their staff work from home.

“With taxpayers facing a cost-of-living crisis, politicians should be doing their utmost to keep their spending down.”

Richard Lloyd, IPSA’s chairman, said compliance with the rules was at 99.7 per cent last year.

He added: “By far the largest area of spending is to pay for the salaries of MPs’ staff.

"In the last financial year MPs and their staff changed how they work to provide their constituents with a service during the pandemic.

“We enabled MPs’ staff to work from home, while the amount spent on parliamentary business travel fell to reflect different working patterns."

A total of 76 individual claims were made by the MP, with the most expensive single claim being £192,906.09 for staff payroll.

His smallest claim was just £1.39 for stationery and printing.

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