MPs claimed almost £200,000 from taxpayer to heat second homes

© Provided by Metro Campaigners including Fuel Poverty Action say ministers are ‘insulated’ from financial woes (Picture: Getty)

Prime minister hopeful Liz Truss is among MPs being accused of claiming almost £200,000 in expenses to heat their second homes over a three-year period.

Analysis shows MPs are largely ‘insulated’ from the financial woes of the cost of living crisis as much of their energy and utilities bills are covered by the taxpayer.

Tory leadership frontrunner Ms Truss – already under intense scrutiny over her plans to lower taxes to tackle the economic crunch – has charged taxpayers £2,367 for gas, electricity and water bills at one of her homes over the past three years.

Her multi-millionaire rival Rishi Sunak did not claim for household utility costs, but other ministers and senior figures in line for top jobs are among the 301 MPs who have put utility bills on expenses in the last financial year.

The figures come from the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA)- created in the wake of the 2009 MPs’ expenses scandal.

Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, told The Independent: ‘On the basis of these findings, it looks like MPs will stay warm this winter – unlike the reality for millions of their constituents.’

Ruth London, from Fuel Poverty Action, said MPs would not be affected in the same way as their constituents when the energy price cap rises by 80% in October.

© Provided by Metro Liz Truss’ £2,367 bill to taxpayers for gas, electricity and water bills will put her tax-lowering proposals under even more scrutiny (Picture: Reuters)

Further spikes in 2023 are set to land households with energy bills of more than £6,000 a year.

Ms London said: ‘It adds insult to injury that people are paying their wages – and paying for support with some of their bills – while suffering from the policies they are passing.

‘There’s a problem when the people making the rules, the people passing legislation on energy, don’t get affected by the problem in quite the same way.’

Politicians with seats outside London are allowed to put utility bills on expenses at one of their homes, whether it is in the capital or in their constituency.

Ministers’ claims for gas, electricity and water came to just over £195,000 in 2021–’22, according to an analysis of data from IPSA.

It also showed since 2019 that MPs have claimed just over £692,000 to cover these utility costs, with £538,000 alone going on heating bills.

Suella Braverman, favourite to be named home secretary if Ms Truss wins the leadership contest, has claimed £7,160 for household utilities since the 2019-’ 20 financial period.

Education secretary James Cleverly, predicted to become foreign secretary, billed taxpayers £4,142 in energy and water bills in the same time.

Among senior Labour MPs making the claims was the party’s deputy leader Angela Rayner, who has been handed £2,318 to cover energy and water bills since 2019.

The Taxpayers’ Alliance pressure group is demanding a cap on the amount that MPs can claim for utilities for their second homes – saying without it politicians will have no motivation to pull back their energy use during the cost-of-living crisis.

Darwin Friend, policy analyst at the group, said: ‘With energy prices soaring and the tax burden at a 70-year high, taxpayers will rightly be concerned that their hard-earned cash is being used to insulate MPs from the cost-of-living crisis.’

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