Consider this....

eazybee I don't think the 2018/19 claims are complete. I don't know when the deadline is.

I don't think an £80k salary is excessive either. I want good MPs, who have the skills and talents to have a senior job. They could easily earn that elsewhere.

Kevin Foster's expenses don't look excessive to me. Not only will he have four or five staff (or equivalent), but he'll have to pay for employer pension and NIC contributions and the staff's own expenses.

Such a good question Daisymae but I am so sick at heart since the elction I really don't want to know the answer!!

Are they still allowed to employ family members?

Eazybee
Kevin Foster was indeed returned with more than half the votes cast. He himself as agreed (on Twitter,) he did claim around £200,000 in expenses which he says were mainly staffing costs. Perhaps I should ask for a job on his staff as they are clearly earning a great deal more than I ever did in the NHS.
He is around the constituency most week ends and is always available to people. I don't have a problem with him on a personal level, but I don't trust his party leaders at all.

I found my information at:
MPs' Expenses | Find your MP at MPsExpenses.info
www.mpsexpenses.info
According to this Kevein Foster claimed £51,641.21 between 1stApril 2018 and 31st March 2019.
Therefore he must have claimed about £148,000 in the last nine months.
He was returned last night with 29,863 votes, a much increased majority.

Hetty58 people do indeed vote for him, and I almost cried when someone I know told me, as she put her postal vote into the letterbox, that she was voting for him as he was already doing the job so why not?
I have also been told that many people locally will not vote at all, because they don't know what would be best.
I think many people do not understand that the party leader is the person who chooses the Cabinet, and is the person who decides what Cabinet will take forward to be discussed in the Commons.
That is why it is vital when looking at electing an MP at a local level one also gives a thought to the party leaders.

Oh please. What do you think people at the top earn generally? MPs pay was actually £77,279 last year and that will be, I would have thought, a drop in salary for a doctor, a lawyer, etc.

Probably our most comparable countries are France and Germany. In France, they earn £74,307. The comment I found with this amount while researching was "France has a long history of socialism so it's not that surprising that its MPs' wages aren't particularly high." In Germany, they earn £100,439 and they are some of the highest-paid in Europe.

As for the expenses, they have to run an office in London and/or in their constituency and travel backwards and forwards between them. They pay their staff directly, on agreed pay scales, for which they can claim. They may need one or more administrator, researcher, etc., depending on the work they are doing. The people filling these roles often work part-time for more than one MP. How much do you think that should cost?

The OP is the politics of the Daily Mail and similar hate sheets. The problem is not the level of the MPs pay but that so many people are paid so much less. We need to increase our productivity with investment so that less skilled jobs pay better.

The whole political system in the UK needs reform. The House of Lords, the second homes, their expenses, the subsidised restaurant and bar etc etc. Must be lovely to get a good meal and a few drinks on the cheap lol.

curlywhirly yes he has.

Thought I read this week that Jeremy Corbyn had one of the lowest claims?

Where did you find your figures eazybee?

It looks as though the 2018/9 claims haven't yet been completed.

Rees-Mogg claimed a total of £125,100.28 in 2017/18. I haven't a clue why he didn't claim for travel.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/10/myth-labour-lost-working-class-pollsters

The staffing costs for Kevin Foster seem high, but other MPs have expenses heading towards £200,000.

Well I can assure you I've got an SNP MP and she is useless, but I bet she will still be my MP on Friday.

It would be good if HMRC were to investigate some of these expense claims but somehow I can't see it happening.

Seriously though, does anyone think when an MP looses their seat, the next one doesn't cost the same, give or take?

And yet people vote for this person? Disgusting!

Yes, Torbay currently represented by Kevin Foster.
The information came from Devon Live......
Quote: "Members of parliament representing Devon claimed a total of more than £2million in expenses in 2018.

The figures from the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) come 10 years after the parliamentary expenses scandal first broke back in 2009.

But which local MP claimed the most?

Torbay's MP Kevin Foster tops the table, having claimed £200,569 on expenses between January and December last year."

Apparently his salary is actually a little under £80,000
Most of what he claimed is said to have been for staffing costs!! They must be paid a whole lot more than I ever achieved.

Here is the link: www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/devon-mp-claimed-most-expenses-2846913

It must be remembered that Devon is the 2nd largest county in England.

Well, it's fascinating.
The figures I found went from April 2018 to March 2019. The highest claiming: top of the list was the Labour MP for Ladywood Birmingham (over £100.000), followed by SNP , likewise, followed by Conservative, £80, 000, both from Scotland, and others from all parties, mainly from the far north, so I am assuming travel and or rent. (Not all, though: Hampshire and shire counties.).
The lowest were nearly all Conservative, Zac Goldsmith and Jacob Rees-Mogg included, and were from all parties whose constituencies were in central London.
Can't find anyone (yet) approaching £200, 000.

Somewhere in the Torbay area, I think, going on Persistentdonor's posting record...

A quick search will give you a name for the likely MP

And you think Labour MPs are paragons of virtue then?

Your MP's name is?

Yes, who is it?

What is your MPs name.

My OH works for the civil service and has had a whopping 1% pay rise again this year as in numerous previous years , In real terms having found a pay slip from 7 years ago he was earning more then . Hey ho ?

Did he have a chauffeur driven car and stayed at the Ritz when he was in London attending Parliament? That is obscene.