In June of this year I became, I believe, the first UK politician to self-publish my payslip in full. I am continuing this and below is my payslip for July 2022, for my role as a Councillor.
Why?
To call politics a swamp is to understate the problem. There is so much corruption, lies, collusion... just total mess going on in the world of politics. At all levels and in all parties.
Over the past few years I have become sick of seeing this happen.
In 2016 I was a part of a Conservative HQ team sent to the constituency of Thanet, to help a campaign against UKIP candidate Nigel Farage. We won the seat, however the election campaign became infamous for election expenses fraud. Disgusted by this, I gave evidence in the crown-court, that resulted in the Conservative's election agent receiving a suspended jail sentence.
I will not tolerate dodgy expenses, brown envelopes, whatever you want to call them. Not in my party, not in any.
Isn't this already freely available?
Some people have told me that publishing my expenses achieves nothing as the information is already available. This includes other Havering Councillors.
This isn't correct.
What is available is the total sum of 'my allowance', which currently stands at £10,412 per year. You can view that HERE.
But this doesn't tell you the full story. By revealing my tax code you can see I must have another income, allowing you to check that I have declared everything properly on my Declaration of Interests. Which you can view HERE. Crucially, you can also see if I have been paid any expenses without needing to navigate the Council's website.
You can also view National Insurance contributions. Did you know, for example, that Havering Council spends over £60k a year in paying National Insurance contributions because Councillors are 'employees'? You won't find that figure in the figures on what Councillors are paid. (Yes, we are not paid that, but it's a hidden cost).
So, I'll keep on publishing each month. Leaving me open to challenge. I hope others will join me.
Petition.
If you think UK politicians should publish their pay-slips, please write to your MP and Cllrs and sign my petition.
Notes on my payslip:
It appears my tax-code is still 0T. This means that none of my pay is tax-free.
I do not appear to have paid any N.I this month, unlike last month. I believe this is an error on HMRC's behalf and have contacted them to clarify.
Excluding casework or meetings with residents and local businesses or organisations, I estimate that I spent a total of 14 hours in official Council meetings in July.
This gives me an hourly rate of £61.96 pre tax, compared to the UK average of £14.95*
