Foreign Office minister Mark Simmonds said on Monday he was resigning from Parliament because his government salary and rent allowances were not enough for his family of five to live on.
The Conservative MP described the financial provision for MPs as "intolerable" and "impossible" even though his annual salary was as much as £201,000 per year ($337,000) and he had recently made a £537,500 ($901,347) windfall on the sale of a house that was bought with an interest-free mortgage.
Business Insider asked Simmonds for comment, but we have yet hear back.
Here's a look at the income Simmonds claims to be scratching by on, courtesy of data from The Telegraph and Simmonds' local newspaper, the Boston Standard.
Simmonds had several income sources in the period post-2009 when parliamentary rules were changed due to a scandal over MPs abusing their expenses:
- £89,435 salary as a minister and MP.
- £27,875 a year in rent allowance.
- £25,000 a year to employ his wife as an aide.
- £50,000 a year as an adviser to Circle Healthcare, a private healthcare company.
- £9,600 a year for his role as chairman of chartered surveyors Mortlock Simmonds.
- Total: £201,910
Simmonds said he was quitting because he was unable to rent a flat for his family near Westminster — one of the most expensive places to live in London — that was suitable for his wife and three children. Rightmove shows several four-bedroom flats in the area renting for about £5,000 ($8,385) a month, or £60,000 ($100,615) per year. That would leave Simmonds with around £142,000 ($238,123) in annual income. Even if you exclude his earnings from private contracts, Simmonds could have rented a four-bedroom in London and still had income of £82,000 ($137,508) after he paid his rent.
There is also no requirement that Simmonds live near Westminster. If he wanted to house his family in Alexandra Palace, a leafy 'burb in North London, he could have found a four-bedroom place for around £3,000 ($5,032) per month, or just £36,000 ($60,394) a year, according to Rightmove.
There is also no requirement that an MP's entire family live in London. Plenty of MPs (some might say notoriously) enjoy living the single life in London in a small flat during the week and then commute back to their constituencies on the weekend.
The Boston Standard found last year that Simmonds was "the most expensive MP in the country" with annual expenses of £173,436.96 ($290,853.78).
Average annual income in the U.K. is £26,500 a year ($44,440).