Southport MP Patrick Hurley is living the student life down in London – living in £80 per night student accommodation since he won his seat in the General Election in July to save money for taxpayers.
Mt Hurley has been staying in a small apartment used for university students at the London School of Economics (LSE) during the week before travelling back to Southport at weekends.
He has stayed there for three nights a week and aims to move somewhere on a more long-term basis after the party conference season finishes at the end of September.
The 2024 Labour Party Conference will take place in Liverpool from this Sunday (22nd September 2024) to Wednesday 25th September 2024.
The Annual Conference venues are the ACC, ECL and the Pullman Hotel.
Patrick Hurley said: “What I found is that at LSE, while the students aren’t there throughout the summer, they rent out rooms to overwhelmingly [holiday-goers] but also anybody that wants a room for the night. And the rates, I’ll be honest, are cheap as chips.
“For a few weeks over the summer, and a few weeks up until the conference recess is over, I was quite happy to do that, and make sure that the taxpayer isn’t on the hook for excessive expenses.
The Labour MP said he has been living alongside families, who were renting out rooms during the summer holidays. He said before travelling to Parliament in the morning he regularly picks up a sausage sandwich from the canteen.
“It’s almost like a Butlin’s in central London, which wasn’t what I was expecting when I got elected. It does the trick.”
However, he believes more could be done to alleviate the housing crisis in central London for new MPs moving down for the first time. Out of 650 people elected in July, 335 had never been an MP before.
He said: “MPs don’t get provided with accommodation when they get elected, and it’s all on ourselves to go and find somewhere to live.
“I don’t want to come across a special pleading for Members of Parliament and say that things need to change to make our lives easier, because we’re in a very privileged position.
“I do think, though, that something needs to change in terms of making things slightly less frantic after an election where you’re trying to set up an office in Westminster.”
The average cost for a flat in Westminster is £3,072, according to ONS statistics, while the average rent in England was £1,301.
According to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, a public body to regulate expenses, MPs who rent in London get a budget of £22,920, whereas those renting outside the capital receive £16,010 a year.
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