Eleven MPs have applied for loans from the taxpayer

By Jonathan Walker on May 21, 10 05:36 PM in Politics

Parliament's new expenses watchdog has received loan applications from 11 MPs so far, it tells me.

The money will be used to put down deposits on rented accommodation in London.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority insists it can't tell me how much the loans are for (I thought this type of secrecy surrounding expenses had ended?) but the maximum MPs can borrow is ÃÂ£19,900.

I guess there are very few properties where tenants are required to provide a deposit of that size, so the loans may in fact be for much less.

This may not sound like the "new politics" we all apparently voted for, but MPs do need somewhere to stay in London and don't all have huge bank accounts (the 232 new MPs, in particular, won't necessarily have been earning huge sums in their previous jobs).

However, I don't see why they aren't simply provided with accommodation funded directly by the taxpayer, instead of making them pay rent themselves and then claiming expenses (or claiming expenses in advance).

It might not be cheaper, but it would remove any suspicion of people using the system to their advantage - which would benefit politicians as well as the rest of us.

Black Country MP David Winnick (Lab Walsall North) has called for IPSA's chief executive and chairman to resign.

He is one of many MPs angry that the new expenses regime is too tough. For example, MPs can only claim back 85 per cent of their phone bills on the grounds that 15 per cent of calls are personal or political.

This includes bills run up by staff in their offices.