Did you know that Parliament shuts down for 82 days over the summer? No, neither did I. Imagine if your place of work was shut for that long, what would you do?

It’s holiday season now for MPs, but what will they be doing? Off to Blackpool with a deckchair and an ice cream or are they living it up on the Costa Del Sol. What is Preston’s MP Mark Hendrick doing during his summer break?

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Campaign group 38 Degrees have set up a website that allows you to questions what MPs are doing over the summer. They state:

Parliament closes today until 12th October. Will your MP be using their 12 week break from parliament to work hard in your local area? Or will they be taking a very long holiday and earning extra money from a second job? Being an MP is meant to be a full time, but there’s a risk that some MPs may be planning to abuse the system.

The website lets you put in your postcode and it sends a link to to a survey to the MP asking them what they are doing this summer. If enough people fill it in MPs cannot ignore it.

If the expenses scandal has taught us anything it should be that we cannot trust MPs to do what they say anymore and we as the public need to take a closer look at what they, as voted in by us, do for us.