Why are MPs able to claim Christmas parties on expenses?

What was Ipsa thinking? That's the question MPs are asking today after it emerged that the parliamentary spending regulator has decided MPs can claim for their office Christmas parties on expenses. There’s never a good time to make that kind of decision, but particularly not when their constituents aren't even turning their heating on or using their ovens.

Ipsa issued the guidance in one of its regular bulletins, telling members that they could claim for food, decorations and non-alcoholic drinks for an 'office festive event' but that it needed to 'represent value for money, especially in the current climate'. I've spoken to Ipsa, and they say the guidance was issued in response to requests for clarification from MPs – though wouldn't offer any detail on whether members were asking specifically about Christmas parties or more general festive spending. Either way, the reaction from MPs generally has been that none of them would use a taxpayer-funded budget for such an event and they would never have asked Ipsa to let them either.

Ipsa performs a tricky role: it was set up to remove MPs from decisions about their pay and expenses after the 2009 scandal. As such, it is used to public outcries whenever it decides to put up MPs’ pay – and to politicians pleading with it not to award them a raise. Largely it makes sense to stop MPs from being the ones to set their remuneration, if only to stop those tiresome memes about them voting on their own pay in a packed Commons chamber (they don’t). But as members know, the main force of the outcry will be directed at them whether or not they're the ones signing a decision off. 

The poison of the expenses scandal will course through British politics for decades to come. One of the things that particularly angers the public is the sense that MPs are getting paid comfortably for not doing their jobs, and that impression always becomes more acute in an economic crisis. Scandals also affect everyone in the Commons, regardless of how much someone was actually involved. I've heard from a number of MPs in opposition parties who now get abuse from constituents about going to Downing Street lockdown parties. One member rationalised it to me thus:

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‘They're not really angry about the parties, but about politics not working for them again. It's like during the Brexit votes: politics is invading their lives in a way they don't like and they don't think MPs are doing their jobs properly.’

A taxpayer-funded Christmas party would annoy people even in lean times. Now, MPs will go out of their way to show that they either footed the bill themselves or that they're using Ebenezer Scrooge as their inspiration for how to thank their staff in the festive season. None of which has much to do with how well they're doing their jobs, either.