The booking fees for West End theatre tickets are a "blatant rip-off", MPs said yesterday.

The agency fees, which can add between £2.50 and £15 to the price of a ticket, cannot be stopped but should be made far more transparent, the Commons culture, media and sport committee said in a new report.

The MPs also concluded that actors' low wages were a "scandal" and said that a Whitehall freeze that has cut £34m from the Arts Council's budget should be reversed.