MPs claiming expenses is not a new thing

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The scandal of MPs enjoying extravagant expenses might seem like an indictment of the modern politician.​

But the identity of the very first commoners sent to Parliament can be revealed by the new book Parliament: A Biography by Chris Bryant, the Labour MP for the Rhondda, only because they too pocketed public money for their time and travel more than 700 years ago.​

And the desperate scrabble of today's politicians to submit claims is also centuries old, with Parliament inundated with hundreds of complaints for not paying out enough.​


The 700-year-old expense claim: How the first people sent to Parliament can be named because they received VERY generous handouts from the King​

King Henry III ordered 150 knights to convene first English parliament in 1258
Names of 14 who attended can be revealed because they claimed expenses
New book includes a scrawled expenses form dating from 1309
Knights received 4 shillings a day, double what they got for going to war


EXCLUSIVE By Matt Chorley, Mailonline Political Editor



The scandal of MPs enjoying extravagant expenses might seem like an indictment of the modern politician.​

But the identity of the very first commoners sent to Parliament can be revealed by a new book only because they too pocketed public money for their time and travel more than 700 years ago.​

And the desperate scrabble of today's politicians to submit claims is also centuries old, with Parliament inundated with hundreds of complaints for not paying out enough.​


This is one of the earliest parliamentary expense claims, dating from 1309, and paid out to Fulk Peyferer, who also attended the first English Parliament, founded by Simon de Montfort, who rebelled against Henry III and briefly ruled England, in 1258. The English Parliament became defunct in 1707, but there are calls for England to be given her own parliament again by those who think it undemocratic that Scotland, Wales and Nothern Ireland have had their own parliaments since 1999 but England hasn't​


King Henry III ordered that four knights from every county, and six from the largest,Yorkshire, attend the first Parliament​

In the mid-13th century, Henry III was forced to accept a new form of government and agreed under the so-called Provisions of Oxford to convene a king’s council to deal with affairs of the realm and ‘legitimate local grievances’.​

He ordered that knights from different parts of the country would report back to a Parliament on problems they had come across. ​

In all 150 knights were appointed, four from each county and six from Yorkshire. Some were too ill to travel, others were deemed ‘not fit’ and replaced.​

But records unearthed by Labour MP Chris Bryant show that at least 14 did attend the very first ‘parliament’ in London in 1258 – and they all claimed expenses.​

In an eerie echo of the 2009 scandal that rocked Parliament, the expenses offered were over generous to make sure the MPs turned up.​

Knights were offered 4 shillings-a-day, including for their travel from every corner of the country - twice the rate for going to war.​


The first Parliament came about after Henry III was forced by his barons to implement the Provisions of Oxford​


According to Mr Bryant’s new book, Parliament: The Biography, the names on the claims include Fulk Peyferer, Mauger le Vavasour and William de Iseny.​

The details were revealed in the ‘partially illegible gall-spattered Close Rolls of November 1258 show that the “reasonable expenses of coming and returning” to the Michaelmas council were met for the knights from at least ten counties’.​

Mr Bryant said: ‘I started this book because I wanted to know who the very first commoners were who came to Parliament – people whose names we have and know they actually attended.​

‘I found a list in the National Archives, it’s all on velum, from October 1258.​

‘That has 14 names of people coming from Kent, Yorkshire and so on. The only reason we know they came is because they had their expenses paid.’​

Britain’s oldest expenses form was also unearthed, dating from 1309, which included claims by Bartholomew de Badlesmere, and Fulk Peyferer, who appears to have claimed for several decades.​

'The King was so keen to have impressive and important knights to come to Parliament that whereas he would pay two shillings to go to war, he paid four shillings for coming to Parliament each day, including every day they were travelling. That was quite a hefty amount in those days.​

‘From 1377 to 1505 there were 119 disputed cases, mainly where people weren’t paid what they should have been paid.’​

The successor body, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, is still bombarded with complaints from MPs today about their claims.​

They can still claim for rail, road and air travel, including being reimbursed for cycling on official duties.​

But since the 2009 scandal they are no longer able to claim for mortgages, extravagant shopping sprees on furniture or eating out when Parliament is sitting.​

WHO CLAIMED THE FIRST EXPENSES FOR ATTENDING PARLIAMENT?​

According to MP Chris Bryant's research, at least 14 names were record on the very first expense claim for attending Parliament in October 1258.​

They were:​


Fulk Peyferer
Robert of Cam (or Cambhou)
William of Buketon
Simon le Lilling
Mauger le Vavasour
William of Barton
Giles de Gousle
William de Iseny
William de Ingolby
William de Santo Laudo
William le Moyne
Walter de Wassyngley
Simon de Copmanford
Baldwin de Drayton

How the very first expense claims were recorded on velum in 1258​


Labour MP Chris Bryant unearthed the very first expense claims while researching his book Parliament: A Biography​


By CHRIS BRYANT, Labour MP for the Rhondda​

A highly significant provision of the Oxford settlement was that the king’s council would deal not only with affairs ‘of the realm and of the king’, but also with legitimate local grievances. ​

To this end the Oxford council resolved that knights (rather than magnates or clerics) be appointed to investigate problems in each county and report back to ‘parliament’ later in the year.​

So, on 4 August 1258, Henry wrote to the sheriffs of the thirty-seven counties of England, sending to each a list of local knights from which a number were to be chosen ‘to enquire touching excesses, trespasses and injuries committed in that county, and to bring their inquisition personally to Westminster by the octave of Michaelmas, for delivery to the council’.​

In all bar one county four knights were nominated, but for Yorkshire there were six, giving a neat total of 150. ​

Not all those originally summoned were to make it to Westminster. Peter de Montfort (no relation to Simon, one of the founding fathers of the English Parliament), who had presided over the Oxford meeting, sent word that three of the Shropshire knights were ‘not fit’; so they were replaced. ​

And when the sheriff of Devon pointed out that two of his were sick he was allowed to appoint substitutes. ​

We can, however, be certain that some of them did attend the parliament, for the partially illegible gall-spattered Close Rolls of November 1258 show that the ‘reasonable expenses of coming and returning’ to the Michaelmas council were met for the knights from at least ten counties. ​

In the cases of Lincoln and York the knights who attended are named – and are the same as those summoned in August. ​

A further seven counties’ knights seem to have arrived later, as their expenses were also met, and again in the case of Huntingdon the names of the attendant knights are the same as those summoned.



Parliament: The Biography by Chris Bryant, published by Transworld, is out now


​

Thugs, scoundrels and womanisers: the worst behaved MPs in history

The Guardian
23 March 2014
Chris Bryant, Labour MP for the Rhondda

Corrupt deals and bribery are age-old offences. At least MPs no longer duel with the neighbours or take loaded pistols to the hustings


John Burgoyne, who won his seat after turning up at the hustings with two loaded pistols. Photograph: Tarker/Corbis

Think expense-fiddling MPs bringing politics into disrepute are a modern phenomenon? Not so. Here Labour MP Chris Bryant, author of new book Parliament: The Biography, picks his top 10 bad apples in British and Irish parliamentary history.

1. Ralph Crepyn (London, 1283) was wounded in a violent brawl with Laurence Ducket in 1285 over a woman called Alice and had his friends murder Ducket and dress it up as suicide. Alice was burnt alive, the friends were hanged and Crepyn died in the Tower.

2. John de Haltby (Ipswich, 1339) was so hated for his brand of political thuggery, having led a violent assault that ousted the equally despised sitting bailiffs in Ipswich in 1321, that when he was murdered in 1344 the town refused to arrest the perpetrators.

3. Giles Mompesson (Great Bedwyn, 1614 and 1621) was fined, expelled from parliament and told to parade up the Strand "with his face in a horse's anus" for extortionately abusing his royal monopoly for the licensing of inns and manufacture of gold thread in 1621.

4. Sir John Trevor (several seats, 1679-95), the cross-eyed Speaker of the Commons, took to his bed for two days in 1695 when found guilty by the House of corruptly taking 1,000 guineas to help expedite the orphans bill for the City of London Corporation. It did not stop MPs from removing him.

5. When the South Sea Bubble burst in 1720 virtually the whole government was implicated, including the First Lord of the Treasury Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland; the Northern secretary James Stanhope; Chancellor of the Exchequer John Aislabie; the Southern secretary James Craggs, and his father James, the Postmaster General. Stanhope and the two Craggs died before justice caught up with them, but Aislabie and two other MPs were expelled from the Commons for their dodgy dealings. Sunderland, who was equally guilty, got off.


George Bubb Dodington. Photograph: Alamy

6. George Bubb Dodington (several seats, 1722-61) was described by colleagues as "the most tawdry man in the nation" and "the reprostituted prostitute" because of his compulsive, self-seeking ambition. His sole redeeming feature was his tender speech opposing the execution of Admiral John Byng MP in 1757.

7. Sir William Paxton tried to buy the borough seat of Carmarthen in 1802 with 11,070 breakfasts, 36,901 dinners, 25,275 gallons of ale and 11,068 bottles of spirits. He lost, but was elected the following year for Carmarthenshire.

8. General John Burgoyne (Midhurst 1761-68, Preston 1768-92) helped secure his election in the tempestuous contest in Preston in 1768 by turning up at the hustings with two loaded pistols. He was allowed to keep the seat but was fined £1,000 for incitement to violence. He subsequently surrendered to the American colonists as commander of British forces at Saratoga on 17 October 1777.

9. Beauchamp Bagenal (Enniscorthy 1761-69, Carlow 1768-83), fought countless duels, including one at the age of 60 with a neighbour whose pigs had destroyed his flowerbeds, insisting on this occasion that the challenge be held in the afternoon and that he be allowed to take aim seated on account of his advancing years. The neighbour was badly wounded and Bagenal's chair was shot to pieces.


James Brudenell. Photograph: Alamy

10. James Brudenell (several seats 1818-37, then 7th Earl of Cardigan), a braggart and a bully who was serially unfaithful to his wives and mistresses, was thrown out of the army in 1834 for "reprehensible conduct". In 1841 he was acquitted of killing one of his former officers by a jury of his peers, despite clear evidence to the contrary, thereby proving, in the words of the Times, "that there was one law for the rich and another for the poor". He then led the foolhardy charge of the Light Brigade in 1854.

• Parliament: The Biography by Chris Bryant is published on 27 March, £25. To order a copy for £20 with free UK p&p, call 0330 333 6846, or visit theguardian.com/bookshop.

• This article was amended on 24 March 2014. An earlier version referred only to Britsh parliamentary history. Beauchamp Bagenal was Irish and sat in the Irish parliament before the Act of Union, unifying Ireland with Great Britain to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in 1800. In addition, an image purporting to be of Sir John Trevor was in fact of Sir John Houblon, first governor of the Bank of England, and has been removed.

Thugs, scoundrels and womanisers: the worst behaved MPs in history | Politics | The Guardian
 
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