Bank of England officials run up £1m expense bill

BANK of England officials claimed £1million of expenses in a little over two years.

They have run up huge bills for everything from business class flights to stationery and even a phone charger.

Two US-based advisers spent £390,000 travelling across the Atlantic for meetings including at the Bank’s London headquarters, a Treasury select committee hearing was told yesterday.

A Daily Mail analysis of Bank records shows they are not alone in racking up enormous expenses.

The 18 officials who sit on the monetary policy committee that sets interest rates and the financial policy committee, which monitors the banking system, claimed a total of £1million between December 2015 and February 2018. Governor Mark Carney, who earned nearly £900,000 last year, incurred more than £300,000 in expenses in this period on top of his pay.

Critics warned the vast claims had ‘disturbing’ echoes of the MPs’ expenses scandal.

They also criticised the near-£100,000 the Bank spent on a summer bash for staff – with one MP saying it must have been ‘one hell of a party’. The row is awkward for the Bank of England after years of low interest rates that have hammered savers.

Comparing the revelations to the MPs’ expenses scandal, Tory MP Simon Clarke told the hearing yesterday: ‘Taxpayers will be absolutely horrified that senior advisors to the Bank of England are living high on the hog.’ The Bank is part-funded by taxpayers but also raises money by investing cash it looks after on behalf of building societies and banks.

The bulk of Mr Carney’s expenses bill was £306,307 of foreign business travel – including trips to New York, Washington and Davos.

The 53-year-old Canadian’s job entails travelling the world meeting politicians, fellow regulators and bankers.

Deputy governor Sir Jon Cunliffe incurred expenses of £146,25.

These included £104 for a passport and phone charger and £153 on ‘stationery and IT equipment’.

A Bank of England spokesman said that foreign travel was essential for Mr Carney and Sir Jon, given their international commitments.