Deputy PM David Lammy claimed virtually £7,000 for assist together with his tax returns
David Lammy has charged taxpayers almost £7,000 for help with his tax return.
The senior Labour MP used his Commons expenses to pay accountants’ fees 10 times before the practice was banned last year.
Figures published by the Parliamentary pay body show that he first used public money for the service back in 2012, with a £936 claim for ’60 per cent of accountants fees’.
He continued to claim back more than £600 a year for ‘parliamentary accountancy’ for much of the next decade with a final claim for £247 in March 2024.
In total his claims came to £6,604 before the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) announced that it would no longer ‘accept any claims relating to preparing a self-assessment tax return’ from the 2024-25 tax year onwards.
A spokesman for Mr Lammy, who is now Deputy Prime Minister and Lord Chancellor, insisted his claims were made and declared in line with rules set out by IPSA.
Deputy PM David Lammy. The senior Labour MP used his Commons expenses to pay accountants’ fees 10 times before the practice was banned last year
But John O’Connell of the TaxPayers’ Alliance campaign group said: ‘Taxpayers up and down the country are finding the tax burden ever more burdensome with successive chancellors raising rates, freezing thresholds and layering on complexity.
‘With the Deputy Prime Minister’s Government being the worst culprit of this, he should be considering how this will look to his constituents.’
And independent tax consultant David Whiscombe said: ‘I’m sure that many MPs with income and gains from non-parliamentary sources have complicated tax affairs which warrant taking professional advice. But that has never been a reason, in my view, to expect the cost to be funded by the public.
‘Being an MP does not of itself complicate an individual’s tax affairs to the extent that it makes it necessary to take professional advice. In my view, IPSA’s change of practice is justified and overdue.’
