How many MPs are Millionaires?

[Andy Walker]

Hi All 

Potentially I'm looking to start a piece of research into MPs assets. 

This idea started from a thread I'm on in Black Lives Matter Allies on FB.

Someone put up an infographic (not a graph as it says on the image :-) )
showing the significant differences between Congress and the US population at large (here)

https://bit.ly/38Phx8k

The question was raised about what the equivalent one would look like for the UK.

So I've made a start (adding some extra categories):

https://bit.ly/2Q8SV3Q

I can't find any data on how many MPs are millionaires - any ideas?

.. or even any ideas about who to ask?

I'm going with the view that this would include property assets - so
even MPs with a house that is now worth over £1m would be included.

On the infographic I've gone with 20% - but my guess would be 25% to 50% ...

I've Googled at length to no avail .. there is one mention of an FOI request to Parliament on exactly the same issue - their reply was that they don't keep that information ...

I'm happy for any of the figures I've used to be challenged.
I've listed my sources and the year they describe.

Maybe there's a few of us who would like to contribute to an 'MP assets list' in the style of The Times' 'Rich List'??

Warm regards

Andy

Btw: The careful selection of people to sit on the Leeds Citizens' Jury in September 2019 made a fine job of mirroring the wider population - with a bit of extra representation from the BAME, disabled and youth communities.  https://bit.ly/3eSuMZC  

[Seb Bacon]

I have nothing useful to add other than I love this idea and the infographic is most interesting.

I see no alternative to estimating MP wealth other than painstaking research which would involve a lot of estimates.

Companies House is where I'd start, but it's a very slow job compiling (for example) share allocations for individual share owners and even then this doesn't necessarily tell you much about the value of the shares.

Seb

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[Andy Walker]

Thanks Seb

I've opened this Google Sheet to record the results that any of us find: 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13zcw02AZ-6QrP95Z-F2hZ4zKUXw-qnd5B_b4QOSKAFs/edit?usp=sharing

Anyone who'd like edit rights just DM me for the link.

I wonder if writing to the Conservative Party HQ and asking for their info on Labour MPs who are millionaires  - similarly writing to the Labour Party HQ and asking for their info on Conservative MPs who are millionaires  - would produce a result :-) :-) 

As the spreadsheet gets filled in - the known % of MPs who are millionaires would become more accurate - but it could be used as an estimate at any time ... 

Published addresses of MPs - then look on Zoopla for current estimated value might be another way forward - it could well find a swathe of illionaires without trawling though Company House records.

Andy

[Abdul Hai]

It is worth writing to political parties.

The problem is that a lot of this income maybe in things like property and other things which are worth nothing until they are sold.

You can keep up with me on Twitter.

Andy

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[Louise Ferguson]

MPs are self employed, so info is generally poor.

property

spouses also

shareholdings in family firms eg G Osborne

register of members' interests

A good starting point might be the Daily Wail! Not kidding, as it is always on top of the valuations of homes of the wealthy (and not so wealthy), and a good indicator of other assets.

At least MPs is quite a limited set if people.

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[Louise Ferguson]

On Thu, 18 Mar 2021, 14:29 'Abdul Hai' via mysociety-community, <mysociety...@mysociety.org> wrote:

It is worth writing to political parties.

The problem is that a lot of this income maybe in things like property and other things which are worth nothing until they are sold.

I suspect that Drax's income from his landholdings exceeds a million a year. He's one of the top five landowners in Dorset. Dozens of farms etc. on top of his own personal property extending to thousands of acres. All arising out of the slave trade.

Louise

You can keep up with me on Twitter.

On Thursday, 18 March 2021, 14:24:44 GMT, Andy Walker <andy.wal...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks Seb

I've opened this Google Sheet to record the results that any of us find: 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13zcw02AZ-6QrP95Z-F2hZ4zKUXw-qnd5B_b4QOSKAFs/edit?usp=sharing

Anyone who'd like edit rights just DM me for the link.

I wonder if writing to the Conservative Party HQ and asking for their info on Labour MPs who are millionaires  - similarly writing to the Labour Party HQ and asking for their info on Conservative MPs who are millionaires  - would produce a result :-) :-) 

As the spreadsheet gets filled in - the known % of MPs who are millionaires would become more accurate - but it could be used as an estimate at any time ... 

Published addresses of MPs - then look on Zoopla for current estimated value might be another way forward - it could well find a swathe of illionaires without trawling though Company House records.

Andy

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[Abdul Hai]

They do have to declare things in a register.

You can keep up with me on Twitter.

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[Tom Brake]

Painstaking work to go through the register of interest, but using the register when declared could work out the average house price in an area when a house is declared, or the value of a house that would generate a certain level of rent etc...  Or just report on how many houses are owned...

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[Steven Flower]

Could http://declared.info/ help ?

- eg: http://declared.info/search?search=drax&member_name=Richard%20Drax&

On Thu, 18 Mar 2021 at 14:49, 'Abdul Hai' via mysociety-community <mysociety...@mysociety.org> wrote:

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[Matthew Cain]

There's no reason for the national party to hold this data, afaik. But the Register of Members Interests would be a good place to start. 

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[Andy Walker]

All interesting stuff.

The Register of Interests is for income and links to companies rather than total assets.

Ok the spreadsheet is open for anyone to edit - whatever you find how about we put it in there.

Even if each of us only finds the approximate assets for a few MPs then the accuracy goes up .. 

I've sorted the sheet by 'Is Millionaire' and then 'surname' then 'first name'.

Andy

[Abdul Hai]

The problem is that with assets it is difficult to work out a value as they go up and down.

https://groups.google.com/a/mysociety.org/d/msgid/mysociety-community/20dff678-6e89-41b1-9f69-06f85b01e989n%40mysociety.org

.

[Andy Walker]

Hi All

So we're now up to 10 MPs identified as millionaires! Good work on the first day :-)

The fact that asset values go up and down isn't important - its a snapshot - and once you have a house valued at £1m for example it won't go down by that much ...

Andy

[van turner]

What happened to this thread?

Keir Starmer may be a worthy addition. £7.7 million.

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/1532935/keir-starmer-net-worth-labour-evg

[Andy]

Hi All

The thread is essentially parked until some real data can be found about the number of £ millionaires there are in the uk government.

No single source seems to be available.

For the infographic I've created I've simply used an estimate of 20%.

My guess is that it's actually higher.

Fyi: Also attached is the breakdown of the Leeds run Citizens' Jury.

Here you'll see that the group of people selected to be part of the participatory democracy exercise was very close to the actual demographic of Leeds.

Cheers

Andy

[Jaclyn Horrod]

I just typed in the question concerning the millions earnt by MPs. I will study your comments and graphs. Interesting to know that many of these 'MPs' are racking it in due to being MPs!

[Dr Simon Jones]

Hello,

 

Much of the info you require will be in the House of Commons MPs register of interests, e.g. any property holdings over £100k should be on the register.

 

Best,

Simon Jones

 

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[Dr Simon Jones]

Sorry, https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5803/cmcode/1083/1083.pdf

 

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