It costs £34,000 to become an MP. No wonder they expect higher pay

Mark Simmonds has been in politics long enough to know not to expect much sympathy from his constituents. He resigned as a Foreign Office minister this week because his £89,435 ministerial salary was not enough — at least, not enough for him to keep a family home in London. Many of those who live and work in the capital may sympathise with this struggle, but hearts will not be bleeding in his constituency, Boston and Skegness, where the average wage is £17,400. So he is not seeking re-election, and will leave politics next year.

Simmonds was one of the lucky ones. He managed to find enough money to make it into parliament in the first place, which many would-be MPs cannot. Research conducted by the ConservativeHome website suggests the price tag just to enter parliament is £34,400 — when you count travel, forgone salary and the other costs of a long quest for office. Victors can offset this personal investment against a £67,060 MP’s salary, three times the national average. But defeated candidates can expect to limp back to normal life with a big hole in their pockets.

You don’t need to be stinking rich to stand for Parliament in Britain. But it helps. Even wooing a constituency association to be chosen as a candidate carries considerable costs: one Labour candidate spent £5,000 just to get to this starting block. Given that many MPs are expected to stand in unwinnable seats before progressing to safer prospects at later elections, the real cost of eventually making it to Parliament can be even higher. This is fine for the 87 per cent of new MPs who were on more than the London average salary (£33,800) before entering politics, or for those with wealthy family members who can help out.