Is MPs’ watchdog about to upset the Apple- cart?
AN APPLE a day may keep the doctor away – but not the expenses watchdog, as MPs are about to discover.
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) is considering whether MPs ‘ get good value for money’ from gadgets they buy – at taxpayers’ expense – from US tech giant Apple.
MPs have spent close to £40,000 on Apple devices in the past year.
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner splashed out £249 on AirPods to go with her £1,619 iPad Pro. Cheaper Bluetooth headphones are on sale for £8. Her comrade Barry Gardiner charged taxpayers £131 for an iPad pen.
Ipsa was set up following the 2009 expenses scandal of moats and second mortgages. It is chaired by Richard Lloyd, a former head of consumer champion Which? – an expert in what are ‘best buys’.
In a questionnaire to MPs, he asks, for example, if they think value-formoney rather than brand-name is important. Also, if they use their mobile phones mostly for social media and ‘taking pictures around the constituency’.
Such seemingly innocent probing belies a concern that MPs are like excitable teenagers proud of having the latest and coolest tech. But good luck to Mr Lloyd’s team in getting straight answers from some Appleloving parliamentarians about why a lesser phone simply won’t do.
Last November, I asked a similar question to Michael Fabricant, veteran Tory MP for Lichfield, who charged taxpayers £1,074 for an iPhone 11 Pro. Why this model, Michael, and not one of many much cheaper alternatives, I enquired. It was ‘ replacing a fi ve- year- old iPhone 6,’ he replied.
And why MPs’ seeming obsession with Apple, which avoided paying almost any tax in the UK in 2019 despite sales of almost £1.4 billion?
If Fabricant is so wedded to Apple, why not a new iPhone 7 for £775 less at £299? And even if it had to be the newest model, why did he pick the most expensive possible type? The silence was orchestral. Michael?
Perhaps his battery ran out.