MPs’ business costs

Kim Johnson

IPSA paid £1,242,467 against 734 published rows for Kim Johnson between 2019-20 and 2025-26 as the member for Liverpool, Riverside BC, then Liverpool Riverside BC. 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

734 claims, £1,242,467 paid. The headings are IPSA’s own categories grouped; the categories inside each are named on the register page.

CategoryWhat it coversClaimsPaidShare
StaffingThe 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.20£933,99975.2%
Office costsRenting and running a constituency office: rent, utilities, equipment, stationery and postage.514£133,30310.7%
AccommodationThe cost of somewhere to stay for an MP whose constituency is far enough from Westminster that IPSA's rules allow it. An MP representing a London seat is not eligible on the same terms.121£122,8279.9%
TravelJourneys 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.79£52,3384.2%

Every year in the register

Kim Johnson’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.

YearClaimsStaffingOffice costsAccommodationTravelTotal
2019-205£347£1,367£4,070£5,783
2020-2197£126,126£28,953£21,185£4,392£180,657
2021-22104£170,743£21,644£22,200£6,740£221,327
2022-23144£198,543£25,323£23,077£10,736£257,679
2023-24193£214,911£26,151£25,808£12,300£279,170
2024-25134£223,329£21,662£27,228£14,101£286,320
2025-2657£9,569£1,962£11,531

A year in which Kim Johnson 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 typeClaimsPaid
Payroll6£921,065
Pooled staffing services3£11,700
Bought-in services1£1,080
Volunteer - agreed arrangement costs10£154

Office costs

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Rent38£50,236
Stationery & printing139£16,388
Equipment - purchase36£12,067
Pooled staffing services2£9,100
Business rates6£8,759
Software & applications65£6,388

Accommodation

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Rent51£112,478
Utilities47£5,917
Council tax6£3,441
Hotel - London1£525
Landline phone & internet - rental & usage15£402
Hotel - UK Not London1£64

Travel

Cost typeClaimsPaid
Rail26£37,762
Hotel - London5£9,705
Hotel - UK Not London4£2,627
Subsistence11£1,261
Taxi11£344
Mileage - car6£291

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.

DateCategoryCost typeDescriptionClaimedPaid
31 March 2025StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2024-25 year£222,211£222,211
31 March 2024StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2023-24 year£214,911£214,911
31 March 2023StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2022-23 year£194,227£194,227
31 March 2022StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2021-22 year£166,543£166,543
31 March 2021StaffingPayrollTotal Staffing budget payroll costs for the 2020-21 year£122,826£122,826
31 March 2025AccommodationRentAggregated figure for this business cost and budget category in 2024-25£25,224£25,224
31 March 2025Office CostsRentAggregated figure for this business cost and budget category in 2024-25£10,047£10,047
31 March 2022Office CostsRentAggregated figure for this business cost and budget category in 2021-22£10,047£10,047
31 March 2025MP TravelRailAggregated figure for travel during 2024-25£7,923£7,923
31 March 2024MP TravelRailAggregated figure for travel during 2023-24£6,162£6,162
31 March 2023MP TravelRailAggregated figure for travel during 2022-23£6,018£6,018
31 March 2022MP TravelRailAggregated figure for travel during 2021-22£4,788£4,788
28 May 2024Office CostsPooled staffing servicesParliamentary Research Service (Labour)£4,600£4,600
28 April 2023Office CostsPooled staffing servicesParliamentary Research Service (Labour)£4,500£4,500
18 May 2022StaffingPooled staffing servicesParliamentary Research Service (Labour)£4,200£4,200

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

1 claim carries an amount IPSA did not pay or an amount repaid to it: £410 not paid and £0 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 Kim Johnson 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 · Kim Johnson’s register of interests and votes · Sources