Petition · past parliament

Stop subsidising MPs meals from tax payers money

Rejected 21 signatures

What the petition asks

£4.4 mil are used annually to subsidise food and alcoholic beverages for MPs that have very high salaries already and do not need that help. People want these money to be used for poverty among children.
All MPs have already high salaries, increase in salaries and all sorts of benefits, plus access to a very permissive expense system. They do not need to have their food subsidised to £4.4mil per year, on top of each they still expense business dinners to top restaurants. The taxpayers want their money to be used to fight poverty among children, especially now because of Covid19. The Government is full of privileged people that should not use tax payer's money for these frugal activities.

Why it was rejected

There was already a petition about this issue. Duplicates are rejected so signatures collect in one place.

We have published the following petition, which you might like to sign:

Increase food and drink prices for MPs in House of Commons catering venues: Increase food and drink prices for MPs in House of Commons catering venues

Catering services for the House of Commons are provided by an in-house team who do not provide a subsidised service, though the cost of running the service means that it runs at a loss. It is important to note that while in some venues the cost of providing the service exceeds the income received in sales, other venues in the Commons make a profit which contributes to reducing overall costs. The House of Commons publishes details of the cost of House of Commons catering services: https://www.parliament.uk/site-information/foi/transparency-publications/hoc-transparency-publications/catering-services/transparency-reporting-catering-services/

Customers of the House of Commons Catering Services include some of the 650 MPs but also around 14,500 other pass-holders, many of whom are staff on lower wages that work irregular hours. In addition, members of the public and non pass holding visitors to Parliament also have access to these services. The irregular hours and the unpredictability of Parliamentary business contribute to increasing the net cost of providing a catering service. To offset this many of the restaurants, dining room facilities and their staff, are used to cater for private events at times when they are not required by the House. This is one of a number of measures used to reduce
costs.

Timeline

22 Oct 2020 Petition opened for signatures
30 Oct 2020 Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 21
Status Rejected
Rejected 30 Oct 2020

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.