MP to give councillor allowance to charity

Rachel Gilmour will be donating £6,000

Tiverton and Minhead MP Rachel Gilmour is to give the money she gets for sitting on a district council to charity.

Ms Gilmour, who won the new parliamentary seat in the general election, continues to a Mid Devon councillor even though she has a new job.

This means she receives her basic annual salary as an MP of £91,346, and a basic allowance of £6,000 a year for her work as a local councillor.

MPs are allowed to have outside roles,  although Labour wants to tighten the rules around what is allowed.

“I’m about to change the situation with my councillor allowance, so I won’t be claiming it personally,” she told Radio Exe’s Devoncast podcast.

“From October I am going to change the direct debit to a local organisation.”

She added that she did not view being a councillor as a job, but rather “a commitment”

“And there are several MPs in Devon that are also councillors,” she said.

“Every time there is a by-election, it costs in excess of £10,000, so all of us [that are Liberal Democrat MPs and simultaneously councillors] will stand down when the county council elections are held in May next year.”

Ms Gilmour, who is one of four Liberal Democrat Devon MPs who are also councillors,  added that besides the cost of by-elections, standing down mid-term could also cause disruption.

Conservative Rebecca Smith has also kept her role as a councillors after being elected to represent South West Devon at the election.

Ms Gilmore believes being both a councillor and an MP can be useful mututally beneficial for those she represents.

“I went to a meeting in parliament with Lord Best [Richard Best, a crossbench peer] about the housing commission report he had overseen in Devon, which is fantastic and so insightful,” she said.

“But the fact I am on Mid Devon District Council, and have case work about housing, and I know about development, poverty and social housing made a difference, and without that grassroots knowledge I wouldn’t have been able to be as effective as an MP.

“It’s also about looking after taypayers’ money, as it would be about £50,000 to 60,000 if we had all those by-elections, and there is something about having continuity as it would make quite a difference if all of us just disappeared.”