How MEPs spend taxpayers’ money

professional service is henceforth central in the job description,” it reads. “In addition to their basic salary, they will receive an additional allowance in compensation for irregular hours and thus Members should no longer tip drivers.”

It adds that 110 drivers were being recruited to ferry around MEPs, with the scheme costing €10.7million (£9.7million) per year. The winter 2018 newsletter told MEPs they would soon enjoy the comfort of memory foam-cushioned chairs in meeting rooms and the European parliament’s plenary, with “trials due to start in 2019”. The new design, which costs €250 (£220) per chair, was commissioned after JeanClaude Juncker, European Commission chief complained that the old chairs were uncomfortable. Embarrassingly, one newsletter alludes to “inappropriate mail” being circulated in MEPs’ pigeonholes, which turned out to be editions of an escort service magazine.

Another set of minutes revealed that MEPs would soon be able to drink from sparkling water fountains, as well as still water.

The Brexit Party has responded with fury to the disclosure. “These details reinforce everything that I’ve smelled since I became an MEP. In summary; far too many snouts in a gold-plated trough,” said Richard Tice, the party’s chairman.

However Catherine Bearder, a Lib Dem MEP and Quaestor, defended the perks, stressing that they were cost-effective and helped MEPs cope with stressful and exhausting jobs. “We have to keep up [improvements] otherwise the European parliament would end up like the House of Commons, where everything is falling apart,” she said.

‘We have to keep up otherwise the European parliament would end up like the House of Commons’

James Rothwell and Asa Bennett