MP offering up £13k allowance for good causes

REBECCA SMITH 'OPEN' TO SUGGESTIONS

- ALISON STEPHENSON

SOUTH West Devon Conservative MP Rebecca Smith says she is “open” to ideas on how to spend her £13,000 a year allowance for being a Plymouth councillor, having pledged to give it away following the general election.

That could include paying London hotel fees for young people interested in politics so they can spend a week with her at Westminster and helping pensioners with winter fuel costs, she says.

She has been a councillor for Plymstock Radford since 2018 and is standing down in 2026 when the next council elections are held.

Following the general election in which she won a 2,112 majority over Labour’s Sarah Allen, who is also a councillor, she told constituents that she would serve her term of office rather than prompt a costly by-election, but would donate her allowance to charity.