IEA Head of Public Policy Matthew Lesh has written in City AM arguing that MPs shouldn’t be prevented from expensing their Christmas celebrations.

Matthew wrote:

“There is nothing intrinsically wrong or unusual for an employer to organise and fund a Christmas gathering. They are important opportunities to thank people for their hard work and build up team cohesion. Pretty much every organisation, public, private and charity, has one. Nor do they entail a large financial burden – it may be a “bad look” but a few hundred quid per MP is hardly breaking the bank.”

Matthew also argued that an austere approach to MPs’ benefits may be self-defeating, arguing:

“with such high responsibility and low pay relative to other senior positions in law, finance and medicine, it is perhaps no surprise that many of Britain’s best and brightest are eschewing entering politics. There is no way a top corporate executive, whose decisions have far less impact, would do so much for so little money. If you pay peanuts you get monkeys.”

Matthew’s full article can be read here.