Election losses cost 2,000 people their jobs, says Westminster watchdog
Share:
More than 2,000 people lost their jobs after an “almost unprecedented” turnover of MPs at the last election, a parliamentary watchdog has said. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) revealed on Wednesday that 2,023 people who worked for MPs were also made redundant on July 5 when their bosses were either voted out or stood down.
That is more than four times the number who lost their jobs at the 2019 election, with their redundancy payments accounting for around a quarter of the £52.8 million Ipsa spent managing the transition from one parliament to the next. The cost of the transition was considerably higher than in previous years, partly due to the fact 350 MPs lost their seats or stood down, and partly due to Ipsa’s decision to increase the time MPs had for winding up their offices from two months to four.
Ipsa’s chair Richard Lloyd said: “This was a once-in-a-generation change of parliament. “An MP’s office is like a small business. They are the employer, and any MP not returned in the 2024 general election had until November 4 to close down their office entirely.”.
He added: “Ipsa is proud of its role in supporting a representative Parliament, where people without private finances shouldn’t be prevented from becoming an MP – or working for one.”. Established in the wake of the 2009 expenses scandal, Ipsa oversees both MPs’ pay and expenses, including the salaries of the constituency caseworkers, parliamentary assistants and other staff that work for them.
