SCOTLAND’s MPs have claimed a total of over £13 million since the General Election two years ago.
The MPs claimed for a range of expenses – from rent and office costs to travel and royal mail postage – totalling £13,024,326 since July 4, 2024, according to The National's analysis of Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) data.
The MP with the highest total of claims is John Lamont, the Tory MP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk John Lamont.
His claims totalled almost £356k, the most of which went towards rent. He also spent over £8000 on making and posting out a parliamentary update leaflet.
The next highest claimant is SNP MP Brendan O’Hara with a total of £355,686, including spending over £8000 on "mobile phone contract and usage" with EE.
The National understands this bill is for numerous staffers.
The top five concludes with LibDem MP Jamie Stone, SNP MP Chris Law and Tory MP Andrew Bowie respectively.
The entire top 10 is currently MPs who were re-elected in July 2024, owing in large part to the fact they already had staffers to pay for whilst continuing on at Westminster.
Scottish Labour MP Zubir Ahmed, meanwhile, is the highest of the new intake so far – albeit only by 1p.
His £281322.82 spend is only just ahead of fellow Scottish Labour MP and minister Michael Shanks on £281322.81.
The former notably has a high spend on “hotels” – £37403.30 since July 2024 according to the latest IPSA data.
The National understands it was spent on block bookings for short-term lets rather than traditional hotels, however. It is also broadly in line with what some MPs spend on London rent.
We previously reported on some of the expenses logged one year into the Labour government, with £10,000 claimed by Labour MP Melanie Ward for a “policy and office set up consultant” and £8482 claimed by her colleague Lillian Jones for “internal office reconfiguration/partition works to facilitate functioning working space”.
Some MPs were reimbursed for as little as between 10p and 20p for the printing of banners.
Some miscellaneous claims include SNP MP Seamus Logan claiming £63 for 18 copies of “Fishing News”.
A full list of all the Scottish MPs and how much they have claimed so far is below:
