MPs’ business costs

Daisy Cooper

IPSA paid £1,268,318 against 320 published rows for Daisy Cooper between 2019-20 and 2025-26 as the member for St Albans CC. These are the costs of running an office and employing staff under IPSA’s rules. They are not salary, and the largest part of them is wages IPSA pays to the member’s employees rather than money the member receives.

By category, 2019-20 to 2025-26

320 claims, £1,268,318 paid. The headings are IPSA’s own categories grouped; the categories inside each are named on the register page.

Category	What it covers	Claims	Paid	Share
Staffing	The salaries and employment costs of the people an MP employs to run their office and casework. IPSA pays these directly; they are not money an MP receives.	12	£1,130,958	89.2%
Office costs	Renting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.	306	£137,251	10.8%
Travel	Journeys between the constituency and Westminster and within the constituency. Until 2018-19 IPSA published one travel category; from 2019-20 it publishes travel by the MP, by staff and by a dependant separately.	2	£109	0.0%

Every year in the register

Daisy Cooper’s own years, not the register’s: the first is 2019-20 and the last is 2025-26. Figures are not adjusted for inflation, so a rise between two distant years is partly a rise in prices. Select a year to read it on its own.

Year	Claims	Staffing	Office costs	Travel	Total
2019-20	29	£31,192	£12,162	£53	£43,407
2020-21	66	£191,088	£26,176	—	£217,264
2021-22	48	£204,680	£23,433	£56	£228,169
2022-23	47	£220,977	£21,114	—	£242,091
2023-24	59	£234,079	£23,872	—	£257,950
2024-25	45	£248,942	£25,224	—	£274,167
2025-26	26	—	£5,269	—	£5,269

A year in which Daisy Cooper joined or left the House part-way through is a part year, and is not comparable with a full one.

What each category is made of, 2019-20 to 2025-26

The cost types IPSA records inside each heading, largest first by what it paid.

Staffing

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Payroll	6	£1,102,969
Pooled staffing services	6	£27,988

Office costs

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Rent	43	£92,792
Stationery & printing	66	£10,289
Equipment - purchase	25	£8,608
Software & applications	17	£8,444
Landline phone & internet - rental & usage	77	£5,277
Working From Home Allowance	3	£3,329

Travel

Cost type	Claims	Paid
Taxi	1	£56
Rail	1	£53

Largest claims, 2019-20 to 2025-26

The 15 rows IPSA paid most against, with IPSA’s own description of each. Read the description before the amount: IPSA publishes most of a member’s staffing as one row for the whole year — “Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the ⟨year⟩ year” — so the largest row here is usually a year of wages for the member’s employees and not something bought.

Date	Category	Cost type	Description	Claimed	Paid
31 March 2025	Staffing	Payroll	Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2024-25 year	£245,677	£245,677
31 March 2024	Staffing	Payroll	Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2023-24 year	£227,929	£227,929
31 March 2023	Staffing	Payroll	Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2022-23 year	£215,182	£215,182
31 March 2022	Staffing	Payroll	Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2021-22 year	£199,055	£199,055
31 March 2021	Staffing	Payroll	Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2020-21 year	£185,513	£185,513
31 March 2020	Staffing	Payroll	Total Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2019-20 year	£29,614	£29,614
31 March 2025	Office Costs	Rent	Aggregated figure for this business cost and budget category in 2024-25	£18,000	£18,000
31 March 2022	Office Costs	Rent	Aggregated figure for this business cost and budget category in 2021-22	£17,250	£17,250
10 July 2023	Staffing	Pooled staffing services	Parliamentary Support Team (Liberal Democrat)	£6,150	£6,150
20 June 2022	Staffing	Pooled staffing services	Parliamentary Support Team (Liberal Democrat)	£5,795	£5,795
23 June 2021	Staffing	Pooled staffing services	Parliamentary Support Team (Liberal Democrat)	£5,625	£5,625
9 July 2020	Staffing	Pooled staffing services	Parliamentary Support Team (Liberal Democrat)	£5,575	£5,575
23 May 2024	Staffing	Pooled staffing services	Parliamentary Support Team (Liberal Democrat)	£3,265	£3,265
23 May 2024	Office Costs	Pooled staffing services	Parliamentary Support Team (Liberal Democrat)	£3,265	£3,265
2 March 2020	Office Costs	Equipment - purchase	Office furniture	£2,102	£2,102

Claims refused and money repaid, 2019-20 to 2025-26

2 claims carry an amount IPSA did not pay or an amount repaid to it: £0 not paid and £849 repaid. A refusal is not a finding of wrongdoing — most are claims outside the scheme’s rules, or submitted without the evidence IPSA requires — and it is shown because leaving it out would show only the money that went out.

What this page does not show

Whether any of it was justified. IPSA accepted these claims under its own rules and the register records what was paid, not whether it should have been. A large total is not a finding about the member.

Nor how Daisy Cooper compares with another member. After staffing the largest headings are accommodation and travel, and both are decided mostly by where a constituency is: a member several hundred miles from Westminster is eligible for costs a member with a London seat is not. Two members’ totals are two sets of rules as much as two sets of choices, and the length of service differs too.

It is also not pay. IPSA sets and publishes MPs’ salaries separately and they are not in this register; the staffing figure here is the salaries of the member’s employees.

All MPs’ business costs · Daisy Cooper’s register of interests and votes · Sources