MPs claim £30k in travel expenses (From Witney Gazette)

MPs claim £30k in travel expenses

8:34am Thursday 15th February 2007

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OXFORDSHIRE MPs claimed almost £30,000 in travel expenses during the last financial year - most of the money for car travel.

Figures released this week show for the first time how much MPs claim for car travel, car hire and taxis, rail, air, bicycle, or other transport.

In the 2005/6 financial year, Oxfordshire's six MPs claimed a total of £29,579 for travel - almost two thirds of this, £17,645, was claimed for car mileage.

MPs can claim 40p per mile for the first 10,000 miles driven on Parliamentary business and 25p for each mile after that.

Three MPs, Banbury's Tony Baldry, Witney's David Cameron and Dr Evan Harris who represents Oxford West and Abingdon, claimed for air travel. The total bill came to £957.

Wantage MP Ed Vaizey claimed £85 to cover the cost of his bus and tube fares in London. He was the only MP to make a claim, of £8, for cycling expenses.

With MPs permitted to claim 20p-per-mile, this suggests Mr Vaizey cycled 40 miles over the year.

According to the figures, Mr Cameron, who did not claim anything for his bicycle, received £1,094 for car hire and taxi fares - the 11th highest claim in the country in this category.

But the Tory leader's spokeswoman insisted Mr Cameron had not claimed for a single taxi ride.

She explained he had been forced to borrow a car for a few months when his was stolen in October 2005 and the mileage he claimed had been, to his dismay, logged under "car hire".

The spokeswoman added: "David claims as little as possible and he uses the train when he can."

Environmentally-friendlier rail travel came a poor second place to the motor car, with £9,790 claimed on train tickets over the year - representing just one third of the total travel costs.

Only one MP, Dr Harris, claimed more for rail travel (£7,413) than he did for car use (£4,319).

But choosing the greener option pushed his total travel bill up to £12,104 - the highest of all Oxfordshire MPs.

Dr Harris said last year was the first time in nine years he had claimed mileage, after it was reduced to a "more reasonable" level.

He said: "I try to travel by train whenever I can - for both environmental reasons and because I can work on the way."

The MP with the smallest travel claim was Boris Johnson, Tory MP for Henley, who received £784 for car use and £412 for train tickets - a total of £1,196.

For years the House of Commons authorities had refused to reveal how MPs travelled around their constituencies and commuted to and from Westminster.

But following pressure from Liberal Democract MP Norman Baker, who appealed to the Information Tribunal, they relented and agreed to make the data public.

Mr Baker said he hoped publication of the figures would put pressure on MPs both to keep their expenses claims down and to travel by the most environmentally-friendly means of transport.

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