MPs cannot claim £50 for breakfast – Full Fact

A false claim that MPs can expense £50 for breakfast is recirculating on social media. 

A Facebook post says: “Not one family in Britain should have to use a food bank when a mp [sic] can claim £50 for a breakfast.” We’ve written about this claim many times before, and it has been circulating online since at least 2020. 

While MPs can claim some expenses for food and drink, it is not this much per day and can only be done in certain circumstances. 

Under rules set by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), MPs can claim £25 per night that they spend away from their constituency or London for parliamentary business to cover food and non-alcoholic drinks during this time. While an MP could in theory spend all £25 on breakfast, they would then not be able to claim any further expenses for food or drinks that day. They are required to provide evidence of the costs incurred. 

There are also instances where MPs can claim for hotel stays, for example, if they have been working after 10pm on parliamentary matters, if their constituency is outside London and they do not own property in London or claim the cost of rental accommodation, or if they’ve been travelling elsewhere for parliamentary business and it would be unreasonable to return to either residence in London or their constituency. In some cases, breakfast may be included in the nightly cost of the hotel room, but the overall claim must not exceed £210 in London and Europe, or £150 elsewhere in the UK.  

MPs can buy food and drink, including breakfast, at various locations within the Houses of Commons. These catering services are not directly subsidised but they do run at a loss—which is attributed to “irregular hours and unpredictability of parliamentary business”—meaning that public money is effectively spent subsidising the overall service. This catering is not exclusively for MPs—there are about 14,500 other staff members and pass-holders plus visitors who can use the House of Commons catering facilities.

Claims like this are very common on social media, and we’ve previously written about other misleading claims and misconceptions about MPs’ expenses and pay. False or misleading claims about politicians and the political process have the potential to affect people’s opinions of individuals and parties, and decisions about voting.