Margaret Beckett, MP for Derby South, claimed back Congestion Charges of £2,520. That’s the price of an annual season ticket – enough to cover 252 days of driving in central London, even though Parliament sits for only 150 days in a year.
We were staggered that someone could overpay the congestion charge by around 100 days, and contacted Beckett’s office for a comment.
A spokeswoman for Mrs Beckett told us: “Mrs Beckett says she did not drive in London before 2010 and was unfamiliar with the charge. She was told the best thing was to pay for the entire year so she was always covered. She was unaware of other options. If there is an alternative, she’ll certainly be looking into it.”
You can see the top 10 congestion charge and toll claims below:
| MP | Congestion charge/toll claim |
| Margaret Beckett | £2,520.00 |
| Mark Tami | £1,190.90 |
| David Wright | £1,176.50 |
| Stephen O'Brien | £1,040.40 |
| Tobias Ellwood | £967.00 |
| Nadine Dorries | £864.00 |
| Jenny Willott | £838.30 |
| Henry Smith | £750.00 |
| Khalid Mahmood | £730.00 |
| Paul Murphy | £710.40 |
Disqus - noscript
So, we have MP's who find it difficult to work this out for themselves. This all goes to show that:
a) They are not as smart as they make out
b) They cannot continue to benchmark themselves against the 'professions', something that they are so fond of doing to justify their salaries, if they cannot figure this sort of stuff out for themselves
c) Whoever it was (in the Fees Office?) who advised Beckett should be taken to task as well. It is a simple equation
d) You can bet your bottom dollar that if this was Becketts own money she'd have taken the time and effort to ensure she was paying the correct amount