Shrewsbury MP fares worst for 1st class train travel expenses

Following on from George Osborne’s first-class ‘ticketgate’ this week, where he sat in first class with a standard ticket, Shropshire Fights Back has investigated which Shropshire MPs claim first class when travelling by rail.

Between March 2011 and April this year, Shrewsbury & Atcham MP Daniel Kawczynski’s 72 rail travel claims were all for first class. Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard has travelled first class 36 times out of 60 rail journeys – a rate of 60%, Of Ludlow MP’s Philip Dunne’s 29 rail travel claims 12 were for first class, a rate of 41%, whereas North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson’s 16 claims for rail travel were all for standard class. Telford’s MP David Wright did not claim for rail journeys.

According to IPSA’s guidelines, MPs can only claim for first class if it is less than the cost of a standard open fare.

Jayne McDermott of Shropshire Fights Back says: “If MPs can organise themselves to book first class in advance, they can save taxpayers’ money by booking standard class at that time. What is also worrying, however, is that our investigations show that some MPs are booking singles which often tend to be more expensive than a return, Mark Pritchard, for example, used single journeys 57 times out of his 60 claims for rail travel.”

Jayne continued: “In these troubling economic times, when hardworking families are feeling the pinch left right and centre, it’s shameful that some MPs are yet again abusing the system and using taxpayers’ money unwisely at the same time that the rest of us are having cuts forced upon us in every aspect of our lives. It’s just not good enough. Things would be different if they were using their own money. They must be laughing at us all the way on their first class trips down to Westminster.”