Should MPs and Senedd members be able to claim for hotel stays in the area they represent?
Non-London MPs can claim hotel or rental costs in either London or their constituency, within IPSA's accommodation budget and nightly limits. Senedd members are reimbursed for overnight stays under rules set by the Independent Remuneration Board, mainly for Cardiff-area accommodation, with annual and nightly caps. A Reform UK MS's £569 Cardiff hotel claim, reported in October 2026, has renewed scrutiny of claims made in the area a member represents.
8 Opinions
The trough at which they gorge has no bounds except for the patience of the British public that suffer to fill it.
I think this is only justified in extreme geographical cases - for instance Orkney and Shetland - where the constituency's geography makes such stays unavoidable, or for MSPs who represent list seats which do cover genuinely huge areas. But that's a tiny minority of parliamentarians - outwith the Scottish Highlands and islands, most single member constituency seats are either urban or centred on a handful of (generally close together) towns.
Some constituencies are large, an MP who is travelling around meeting the constituents, helping them, would be able to see and help more people if they could spend a night here, a night there, instead of having to travel back home every day.
As an MP for an area, your constituency is your normal place of work, as such you should not be able to claim hotels or other expenses for working there. HMRC doesn’t allow it for the rest of us, paying MPs this is an immoral waste of taxpayers money. Edited
Representatives' constituencies should be their home base where no expenses need claimed for. It's when they attend whatever section of government they are elected to they get living expenses for being away from home.
Yes. This wouldn't be the worst MP expense hit list.