All 650 Members of Parliament in the UK will receive an iPad Air 2 after the May election

Getting elected to British Parliament has an added bonus this year. According to The Telegraph, all 650 Members of Parliament (MP) in Great Britain will be given an iPad Air 2 and a laptop after the May election. The House of Commons Commission says the new hardware will cost around £200,000 ($300,000) over the next five years. Each MP will be given a 16GB Wi-Fi + Cellular iPad Air 2, which costs £499 ($744). Apple’s tablet was chosen by the commission in part because it’s already popular among MPs — 209 members in the House of Commons possess an iPad, including Prime Minister David Cameron.

Despite that, there are some MPs who aren’t happy with the decision. Shadow Cabinet Office minister Chi Onwurah complained that MPs — like Nigel Mills who was caught playing Candy Crush — would use the tablet to play games and listen to music, and that “locking some of the most powerful people in the country into a platform that most of my constituents can’t afford seems like a mistake.” In response, Commission chairman John Thurso said, “Our requirements are for a secure, SIM-enabled tablet with a good life expectancy and [capability] of supporting future upgrades. The Apple iPad Air 2 meets these requirements and is competitively priced when compared with similar models.”

Verge Video archive: Reviewing the iPad Air 2 (2014)