London MPs' second home allowance axed

London: Dozens of London MPs were yesterday up to £16,500 (Dh89,786) poorer after the Commons voted to scrap their second home allowance.

Despite anger among the capital's MPs, some of whom felt they were being sacrificed to keep the heat off others, only three risked offending public opinion by voting against the historic reform at Westminster on Thursday night.

One MP said there would be "hardship" particularly among women MPs trying to balance Westminster hours.

The axing of the allowance went through by 355 to 39. It means that from next April, 54 MPs representing seats within a 32-km radius of the Commons will no longer be allowed to claim the £24,000 allowance for keeping a flat at Westminster.

However, the capital's MPs will be partly consoled by being paid instead a London supplementary allowance of £7,500 on top of their £64,766 salaries, reflecting the higher cost of living in the city.

Most of the 39 rebels were Conservative grandees and a handful of Labour MPs who objected to Gordon Brown pushing through expenses reforms without waiting for an independent review by anti-sleaze watchdog Sir Christopher Kelly.

The Londoners who voted against the change were Hendon Labour MP Andrew Dismore and Beckenham Conservative MP Jacqui Lait. They were joined by Esher and Walton MP Ian Taylor, one of a handful of MPs from just outside the capital's boundaries who came inside the 20-mile limit.

Dismore, who claimed £3,818 last year for running a flat near the Commons, criticised the Government for forcing through the decision ahead of the Kelly review.

"Some MPs who were elected in 2005 could find themselves in negative equity and unable to sell flats they bought at Westminster," he said. "Most London MPs saw the writing was on the wall and were expecting this. There should have been time, though, for it to be looked at properly."

Dismore will, paradoxically, be better off. His claims for the second home allowance came to less than the value of the £7,500 London living allowance which will be paid automatically into his salary.

- Evening Standard