The Workers’ Party have called for MPs to reject the £10,000 payment granted to them by the Parliament Expenses Authority in Westminster, to compensate them for working from home during the Covid19 outbreak. 

Kieran McCausland, Workers’ Party representative in Upper Bann, said; 

“Every European government has a long list of materials it needs in the fight against Covid19. Public finances will inevitably come under enormous strain for months and indeed years to come. We have Domiciliary Care Workers in need of Personal Protective Euqpiment (PPE), workers in the food industry lacking any protective supports at all etc.

“For Westminster to throw six and a half million pounds away on a cash bonus for already well-paid MPs is an astonishing waste of money.” 

“While bin men, pharmacists, cleaners, retail workers and carers go about their daily lives with minimal protection, an MP needs £10,000 to set up a desk and a chair in their home? What precisely do they expect to spend the funds on?” 

McCausland concluded: 

“I am calling on every MP to refuse this payment. £10,000 is equivalent to what a minimum wage worker in a local shop will make in seven months. It is an astonishingly poor use of public funds, at a time when solidarity – not profiteering – should be at the front of our minds.”