The new Devon MPs still hanging on to council jobs

They are still entitled to thousands in council allowances

Five Devon MPs are among 74 of Westminster's new faces who also still hold positions on local councils despite a burgeoning workload which one of them describes as ‘exhausting’.

It means they also remain eligible for thousands of pounds in council allowances on top of their new salaries for representing their constituencies in parliament.

The basic annual salary for an MP is £91,346 plus a generous pension scheme and allowances for them to run their offices and employ staff.

One Devon MP says she will give her council allowance to charity before standing down from her local role in 2026. Others are busy scaling back their council roles.

Two of Devon’s new Liberal Democrat MPs were council leaders when they were elected in July, while one led the main opposition party in a council chamber.

All three have now relinquished those roles and sit as ‘backbench’ councillors.

North Devon MP Ian Roome seized the parliamentary seat for the Liberal Democrats at the general election, overturning a Tory majority of nearly 15,000. He has since relinquished his role as leader of North Devon Council, but has stayed on as a backbencher for the Barnstaple with Pilton ward. For that he is entitled to the basic councillor’s allowance of £5,421 a year.

Mr Roome also serves on Devon County Council, where he represents Barnstaple North. For this role he can claim £15,082 a year.

In addition to this, he is a member of the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Authority, for which the basic member’s allowance is £3,346.

He said he is planning to carry on until the Devon County Council elections in May 2025.

"That is the most cost effective way to the taxpayer," he said, adding that it is not impossible to be a local councillor and an MP at the same time, as his predecessor as MP for North Devon, Selaine Saxby, a Conservative, did for more than three years.

Mr Roome said he spends roughly half the week in Westminster and half in his constituency.

"It's down to the individual to assess their own commitments and time to do the role,” he said. “I'm lucky as I live in the ward I represent so know about the issues.”

The other local councillor to stand down as a leader following the general election was Martin Wrigley, who led Teignbridge Council at the time he was elected as the Liberal Democrat MP for Newton Abbot, overturning a Tory majority of more than 17,500.

Mr Wrigley now serves as a backbencher on the district council, representing Dawlish North East, for which he is entitled to £6,223 a year. He chairs the council’s appointments and remuneration committee, for which there is no special responsibility allowance.

He is also a Lib Dem county councillor for Dawlish, entitling him to the £15,082 basic allowance. He stood down as chairman of one of the county highways committees.

In addition, Mr Wrigley represents Dawlish North East on Dawlish Town Council, which does not pay allowances.

He said after making his Westminster debut: “It’s exhausting, fascinating and terrifying - but brilliant as well.”

He said he had had to give up his role as leader, which was practically a full-time job in itself.

He went on: “It was with some regret that I stood down, but it was obviously the right thing to do. Holding office at four different levels is not sustainable in the long term.

“Being as involved as I was in all levels of local government cannot be sustained as an MP, but I will still work closely with Teignbridge.

“If the MP’s office works closely with county, district, town and parish councils, we can get an awful lot more done.”

New Torbay Liberal Democrat MP Steve Darling, who also upended a Tory majority of more than 17,500 at the July general election, was leader of the opposition on Torbay Council at the time. He has since stepped down from that role but remains on the backbenches as a member for Barton with Watcombe, a role which has a basic allowance of £9,794. He is a shadow cabinet member, but that role does not carry an allowance.

Speaking after his first weeks as an MP, he said: “Half of the new Liberal Democrat MPs are councillors, some of them leaders or immediate past leaders, so there are plenty of us in this situation.

“We’ll suck it and see for the next few weeks.

“It is not beyond the wit of man to be able to do both jobs. Whether you can maintain your sanity in the longer term is another matter!

“Let’s see how it goes.”

Rachel Gilmour, who took the new Tiverton and Minehead constituency for the Lib Dems in July with a majority of 3,500, continues to serve the Clare and Shuttern ward on Mid Devon District Council. The basic allowance for a member of the Crediton-based local authority is £6,000.

Ms Gilmour said she felt that being able to take forward the concerns and first-hand experiences of the district council to parliament was a “valuable boost for the voices of local people”.

“I am able to call on the fantastic officer team and councillor colleagues at Mid Devon to support residents, and to help shape the local services from both ends,” she said.

Clare and Shuttern is in her parliamentary constituency, and she said she “always carries with me the privilege and heavy responsibility that comes from local people electing me to represent them”.

“I have and will continue to work every day to advocate for my constituents at every level of government for as long as they continue to ask me to, and whilst I feel able to do so with the care and attention their trust demands,” she added.

Asked if there were any technical reasons why she was not relinquishing her council seat, her agent Cllr David Wulff (Lib Dem, Tiverton Castle), said the cost of running a by-election was a consideration.

For a ward like Clare & Shuttern, he estimated this could be somewhere in the region of £10,000. Mid Devon's next district council elections are scheduled for May 2027.

A Lib Dem spokesman summed up: “After years of Conservative MPs taking voters for granted, our newly elected Lib Dem MPs are getting on with delivering for their communities on local issues, and often, the work of being both an MP and local councillor goes hand in hand. The roles allow them to have a greater understanding of the local issues that matter like bringing down NHS waiting lists, and increasing the number of GP appointments.”

Rebecca Smith is continuing as a Conservative member of Plymouth City Council, having been elected in July as the Tory MP for South West Devon. The result was a rare Tory hold on a miserable night for the party in Devon.

Cllr Smith, who represents Plymstock Radford on the council, is entitled to a basic annual allowance of £10,576, but says she will give it away.

In a ‘frequently asked questions’ section online, she said: “I am going to serve out my term of office rather than prompt a costly by-election.

“I will stand down in 2026 when every council seat in Plymouth is up for election. I won’t be seeking re-election as a councillor and am donating my councillor allowance to charity for the duration.

“The role of MP and councillor overlap and having juggled being a councillor and parliamentary candidate - plus two day jobs - for over a year, I know it is possible to carry out both roles.”

All council allowances are set by an independent organisation called the Independent Remuneration Panel, which has no councillors on it.

Allowances are provided to make it more practical for working people to serve as councillors without losing all their income.