The cost of more than 2,000 MP's and political staff losing their job at the last election has cost £52.8million, the body managing MP's pay has revealed.
According to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa), 2,773 people lost their job as a result of Labour's landslide win. The "once in a generation event" saw 350 MP's leave office.
The report also said that 2,023 staff who worked for MP's were also made redundant - four times the number who lost their jobs in the 2019 election.
Now it has been revealed that nearly all of the £52million was spent on closing down the former MP's offices and helping new MP's set theirs up. Around a third of of the total was spent on redundancy payments for staff.
Ipsa, which is funded by public money through a grant from the Treasury, said the "almost-unprecedented" turnover had helped push up the cost of supporting those who lost their jobs by 286%.
Costs included ending rental agreements, settling outstanding payments and making staff redundant.
MPs were also entitled to a loss of office payment, set at twice the legal minimum, if they lost their seat and had been an MP for at least two years.
All MPs who either lost or stood down were also eligible for a "winding up" payments worth four month's salary. Since April 2024, the basic annual salary of a MP is £91,346, plus expenses.
Ipsa said an average of £35,200 was spent per MP on redundancy payments to both MPs and their staff - up from an average of £19,900 at the 2019 election.
Ipsa's chair Richard Lloyd said: "An MP's office is like a small business. They are the employer, and any MP not returned in the 2024 general election had until 4 November to close down their office entirely."
He added: "Ipsa is proud of its role in supporting a representative Parliament, where people without private finances shouldn't be prevented from becoming an MP - or working for one."