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In a front page story, the Metro newspaper and the Daily Mail today complain about an MP claiming for cycling-for-work expenses. There’s no complaint about MP’s who claim for car expenses while on Parliamentary business
The newspaper headline shouts "Bike MP saddles us with 40p bill."
MP’s – like many employees – are entitled to claim mileage expenses for using transport to do their job, whether they drive or ride a bike. The standard mileage rate for bicycles is 20p a mile. Cars are much more than this but even though Hugh Bayley, the MP for York, is saving the tax payer money by sometimes cycling on parliamentary business instead of driving, the Metro newspaper ridicules his expenses claim.
A rent-a-quote spokeswoman for the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: "Lots of taxpayers cycle to work to reduce their own commuting costs, so if MPs cycle why should taxpayers pay them?"
The newspaper and the right wing lobbying group are both 100 percent wrong. Neither organisation claimed Mr Bayley was wrong when he claimed expenses for using his car.
