MPS leave taxpayer picking up tab for unpaid drink and food bill

MPS refusing to pay bar and restaurant bills at the House of Commons have cost taxpayers thousands of pounds.

A Freedom of Information request found that the parliamentary authorities had to write off more than £17,000 worth of unpaid catering bills since 2010. The debt was racked up by four unnamed MPS, 21 tradespeople and one internal member of staff on food and drink.

The research also found that a peer had a £243 restaurant bill waived, while an MP left a £30 catering bill outstanding. All restaurant facilities are subsidised for MPS, who earn £77,379 a year, and members of the House of Lords, who earn a £305-perday attendance allowance, plus travel expenses. The total amount of banqueting debt cancelled because it was deemed unlikely to be recovered since 2010 was £17,019.58.

The figures are a vast improvement on 2009, when it was revealed that MPS owed almost £140,000 in unpaid food and drink bills.

The house authorities ordered a crackdown after it emerged they were chasing more than half of all MPS for wining, dining and entertaining in Parliament’s restaurants.

They included 77 MPS who had failed to settle their tabs – averaging more than £500 each – for more than six months.

The latest figures show the Commons’ catering service sold £9.8 million worth of food last year, compared to £6.7million eight years ago.

MPS, peers and staff can choose from a wide selection of restaurants, cafes and bars to eat and drink while on the Palace of Westminster estate.

The drinking habits of MPS have changed in recent years. Figures released in Nov 2016 revealed that sales of Irn-bru, a carbonated soft drink popular in Scotland, had increased by 60 per cent after the SNP upped its number of seats in 2015 from six to 56.