Office Costs & Expenses

Like most MPs, John runs an office in the constituency (on Alexandra Parade in central Weston) and employs a small staff of researchers (you can find their details under ‘John’s Team’ on this website) to help him solve problems and answer questions for local residents. The money for these running costs is paid directly to the people concerned; none of it goes to John or any member of his family. The only money he claims personally is the cost of travel to Westminster when he’s representing local people in Parliament. If you’d like to know more about how John is spending taxpayers’ funds, you’re very welcome; just click here to see full details of everything John has spent, as approved and published by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority

More broadly, John was the cheapest MP in the local area according to the Weston Mercury’s most recent article [LINK] and has never voted on his pay or expenses saying “no one else gets to decide how much they get paid, so why should MPs be any different?”

John originally published details of the money he used as Weston-super-Mare’s Member of Parliament on his website, long before it became compulsory under House of Commons rules, so anyone could see clearly how he was spending taxpayers’ funds. As part of the official inquiry into MPs’ expenses in 2009, every MP’s spending was audited and John was given a clean bill of health by the official investigator, Sir Thomas Legg, as well as The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian.

Financial Declaration of Interests

Every MP is rightly required to declare any financial and other interests they may have, to prevent any possible conflicts of interest. John’s are all very straightforward (they’re mainly public appointments in schools and colleges, or his role as patron or president of several local charities), but if you’d like to know any more details then – as with his expenses – you’re very welcome. Everything is publicly available if you click on this link here and this one here.

In addition every Government Minister has to make an extra declaration to be sure there are no clashes with their extra responsibilities either. Again, John’s declaration is very straightforward and has been vetted and passed by the Cabinet Office Propriety and Ethics team and the Independent Advisor on Minister’s Interests. If you’d like to look at any of the details then they are publicly available here.