£500m a year of public money for army of professional politicians » Local Government » 24dash.com

Public funds totalling £500 million a year are being spent on an army of at least 29,000 professional politicians in the UK, according to figures released today.

The figures, relating to the financial year 2007-08, come from freedom of information requests by the BBC asking about all of the councils in the country, along with the devolved assemblies, Westminster and the European Parliament.

The amount spent has increased dramatically over the past decade, not only because of the creation of the Scottish Parliament and devolved assemblies in Wales, Northern Ireland and London, but also because of automatic pay for local councillors.

And there are concerns that political parties are obtaining state funding through the back door by requiring elected representatives to pay a share of their income - up to 10% in some cases - to the party.

From the FOI responses gathered for The Political Club on BBC Radio 4, researchers calculated that MPs and Lords at Westminster, together with their staff and political advisers amount to around 4,700 people.

MEPs and their staff make up a further 500, while devolved assemblies in Edinburgh, Cardiff, Stormont and London employ more than 1,100.

But it is at council level that most politicians are employed, with more than 22,800 paid councillors and political advisers. Only Essex County Council did not respond to the requests for figures.

Thirty years ago, no more than 2,000-3,000 people in the UK were paid with taxpayers' money for political work, with the vast majority of representatives, organisers and fund-raisers made up of volunteers or party employees.

Mark Wallace of the pressure group the TaxPayers' Alliance said: "This is a vast bill that I think a lot of people will find extremely shocking when they hear about it.

"The fact is people don't mind paying a reasonable amount for good work, but what they do mind is the idea that there is this huge bill that's actually grown very quietly without ever really consulting people.

"While these findings are very shocking, they are excellent news in terms of actual transparency and actual accountability because for the first time people can actually look over the whole national picture of what our democracy costs in terms of politicians, and that's essential before we can really work out whether we do get a good deal or not."

Former Labour MP Clare Short, now sitting as an independent at Westminster, raised concerns about parties' increasing reliance on funds received in "tithes" from councillors and MPs, who donate part of their income.

"There's more and more money coming into the coffers of political parties through state funding rather than having to raise it from ordinary folk on the ground," she said.

"And of course if you raise money from them, you have to listen to them, so it's much more convenient if you can take it from the state and decide you'll do whatever you want to do."