By DAILY MAIL REPORTER An army of 29,000 professional politicians is costing British taxpayers £500million a year, shocking new figures revealed today. The sums needed to pay for MPs, Lords, councillors, MEPs, assembly members and their advisors has rocketed dramatically during the last decade, records show. The boom is partly due to Labour’s introduction of the Scottish Parliament and devolved assemblies in Wales, Northern Ireland and London. Scottish Parliament: Devolution has helped raise politicians' funding dramatically But also automatic pay for local councilors has helped raise the sum revealed by a BBC freedom of information request relating to the financial year 2007-08. And there are concerns that political parties are obtaining state funding through the back door by requiring elected representatives to pay a share of their income - up to 10 per cent in some cases - to the party. From the FOI responses gathered for The Political Club on BBC Radio 4, researchers calculated that MPs and Lords at Westminster, together with their staff and political advisers amount to around 4,700 people. MEPs and their staff make up a further 500, while devolved assemblies in Edinburgh, Cardiff, Stormont and London employ more than 1,100. But it is at council level that most politicians are employed, with more than 22,800 paid councillors and political advisers. Thirty years ago, no more than 2,000 to 3,000 people in the UK were paid with taxpayers’ money for political work, with the vast majority of representatives, organisers and fund-raisers made up of volunteers or party employees. Mark Wallace of the pressure group the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: ‘This is a vast bill that I think a lot of people will find extremely shocking when they hear about it. ‘The fact is people don’t mind paying a reasonable amount for good work, but what they do mind is the idea that there is this huge bill that’s actually grown very quietly without ever really consulting people. ‘While these findings are very shocking, they are excellent news in terms of actual transparency and actual accountability because for the first time people can actually look over the whole national picture of what our democracy costs in terms of politicians, and that’s essential before we can really work out whether we do get a good deal or not.’ Former Labour MP Clare Short, now sitting as an independent at Westminster, raised concerns about parties’ increasing reliance on funds received in ‘tithes’ from councillors and MPs, who donate part of their income. ‘There’s more and more money coming into the coffers of political parties through state funding rather than having to raise it from ordinary folk on the ground,’ she said. ‘And of course if you raise money from them, you have to listen to them, so it’s much more convenient if you can take it from the state and decide you’ll do whatever you want to do.’ Taxpayers pay £500m a year for 29,000 politicians
Last updated at 2:50 PM on 13th July 2009
Explore more:
Monday, 13 July 2009
Average £17241 per politician!!! ARE THEY WORTH IT? NOT ON YOUR NELLIE!
Posts
