MP expenses.

[Park Life 71]

Gordon Brown will today experience more agony over parliamentary expenses after five ministers and a series of senior Labour MPs were forced to defend embarrassing details about their claims.

 

As parliamentary authorites called in the police to examine how the expenses details of 13 cabinet ministers were leaked to the Daily Telegraph yesterday, a second round on ministers were last night thrown on the defensive over their claims.

 

Barbara Follett, the wife of the millionaire bestselling novelist Ken Follett, was the most high-profile minister named by the Daily Telegraph today.

 

The tourism minister claimed more than £25,000 for security patrols outside her home in Soho. Follett, who said she did not feel safe after she was mugged and fiollowed by a stalker, claimed £25,411.64 for the security between 2004 and 2008. The Commons fees office said her claims could appear "excessive", but still paid.

 

The revelations today came as police were formally called in to investigate the leaks, raising the prospect of a full-scale criminal inquiry. One MP implicated in the latest allegations told the Guardian he believed a mole was still active yesterday, operating inside parliament and feeding material to the Daily Telegraph.

 

Others said the paper was guilty of trading in stolen property, and could be subject to a court fine running into millions.

 

Sir Stuart Bell, a memeber of the Commons estimates committee, claimed that there had been a breach of the Data Protection Act.

 

Downing Street believes the police investigation could backfire because of what is seen as greed and fraud by MPs.

 

Last night it emerged the employment minister, Tony McNulty, could face a police investigation after a complaint was made about expenses he had been claiming under the second homes allowance. In March, it emerged that McNulty had claimed about £60,000 from Commons allowances since 2002, towards maintaining a house where his parents lived.

 

The Telegraph today focuses on five middle-ranking ministers outside the cabinet who, in addition to Follett, are:

 

• Phil Hope, the health minister, who spent more than £37,000 on refurbishing and furnishing what was described as a modest two-bedroom flat in south London. Hoep said last night he made a mistake in wrongly claiming for a razor."

 

 

Taking the piss basically.

[Park Life 71]

• Vera Baird, the solicitor general, tried unsuccesfully to claim for a Christmas tree and baubles.

 

Other senior Labour figures named today include:

 

• Keith Vaz, the chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, who reportedly claimed £72,000 towards the cost of buying and furnishing a flat in central London. Vaz lives 12 miles away with his wife in a £1.15m property.

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• Keith Vaz, the chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, who reportedly claimed £72,000 towards the cost of buying and furnishing a flat in central London. Vaz lives 12 miles away with his wife in a £1.15m property.

 

Won't go down well his constituency, given average earnings there.

 

But then again with his track record (you'd get more honest politicians recruiting them from HMP) he'll probably get away with it.

 

There's little doubt most MPs view their jobs as a pseudo-legal

(could post a better pic, but Tom undoubtedly wouldn't like it )

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Immigration minister Phil Woolas has threatened legal action over "disgusting" allegations he claimed for women's clothing, nappies and comics.

 

[Park Life 71]

Immigration minister Phil Woolas has threatened legal action over "disgusting" allegations he claimed for women's clothing, nappies and comics.

 

 

Comics ffs!!

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/...tid=22520807001

 

 

Shows how they are going to handle it though, paste a ridiculously fixed smile and just not answer anything and pretend they haven't been caught bang to rights at all with their snouts shoved as far as possible in the trough (to within a pound for Blears ).

[Rob W 0]

all rotten to the core -throw the Bastards out

[Park Life 71]

all rotten to the core -throw the Bastards out

[Fop 1]

Blears is amazing though, she's basically been caught in an £18,000 tax fraud (she's either defrauded the expenses system or the tax man when selling flats, no way around it is one or the other), yet she sailing on like nothing happened.

 

Balls of iron.

[Park Life 71]

Blears is amazing though, she's basically been caught in an £18,000 tax fraud (she's either defrauded the expenses system or the tax man when selling flats, no way around it is one or the other), yet she sailing on like nothing happened.

 

Balls of iron.

 

...and yet lectures about how the populous behave come down from on high with monstrous regularity.

[Fop 1]

Blears is amazing though, she's basically been caught in an £18,000 tax fraud (she's either defrauded the expenses system or the tax man when selling flats, no way around it is one or the other), yet she sailing on like nothing happened.

 

Balls of iron.

 

...and yet lectures about how the populous behave come down from on high with monstrous regularity.

 

 

An average MP getting the equivalent of £300,000-£400,000 a year buys a lot of hypocrisy (tax free, of course).

[Park Life 71]

Blears is amazing though, she's basically been caught in an £18,000 tax fraud (she's either defrauded the expenses system or the tax man when selling flats, no way around it is one or the other), yet she sailing on like nothing happened.

 

Balls of iron.

 

...and yet lectures about how the populous behave come down from on high with monstrous regularity.

 

 

An average MP getting the equivalent of £300,000-£400,000 a year buys a lot of hypocrisy (tax free, of course).

 

 

Across the globe democracy has failed to change one single worth while thing. Utter shit.

Edited May 10, 2009 by Park Life

[Park Life 71]

The crisis over parliamentary expenses reached new heights last night as it emerged that HM Revenue and Customs is to investigate whether MPs have deliberately evaded capital gains tax when selling their second homes.

 

News of an inquiry by tax officials, which follows days of leaks about the way MPs have exploited the Commons' allowances regime for private gain, will inflict further damage on the already battered reputation of parliament.

 

In a separate development, in an article for today's Observer, Sir Alistair Graham, the former chairman of the committee on standards in public life, describes the behaviour of the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, as "near-fraudulent" in relation to her expense claims.

 

Smith registered the house she shared with her sister in south London as her primary residence, allowing her to claim the parliamentary allowance of up to £24,000 for her family home in Redditch, Worcestershire, where her husband and children live.

 

"One has to be careful with the word 'fraudulent'," Graham writes, "because in the criminal sense there needs to be guilty intent. However, it seems to me there may be intent here and in similar cases that have emerged. People seem to be thinking, 'What's the best way to use the system so I can maximise the personal financial return to myself?'"

[Fop 1]

The crisis over parliamentary expenses reached new heights last night as it emerged that HM Revenue and Customs is to investigate whether MPs have deliberately evaded capital gains tax when selling their second homes.

 

News of an inquiry by tax officials, which follows days of leaks about the way MPs have exploited the Commons' allowances regime for private gain, will inflict further damage on the already battered reputation of parliament.

 

In a separate development, in an article for today's Observer, Sir Alistair Graham, the former chairman of the committee on standards in public life, describes the behaviour of the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, as "near-fraudulent" in relation to her expense claims.

 

Smith registered the house she shared with her sister in south London as her primary residence, allowing her to claim the parliamentary allowance of up to £24,000 for her family home in Redditch, Worcestershire, where her husband and children live.

 

"One has to be careful with the word 'fraudulent'," Graham writes, "because in the criminal sense there needs to be guilty intent. However, it seems to me there may be intent here and in similar cases that have emerged. People seem to be thinking, 'What's the best way to use the system so I can maximise the personal financial return to myself?'"

 

They have, but they'll get away with it, no doubt.

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My point is simply that for the past 20 years or so MPs have behaved in precisely the way that they have legally prevented other groups from behaving. Trade unionists, doctors, the police and many many others used to argue that they could be trusted to manage their own affairs. Few would argue that now.

 

Yet the House of Commons has run itself as if Members of Parliament can and should be assumed to be honourable and, by implication, better than those they govern.

 

It is this idea that underpinned the creation, the exploitation and the attempt to cover up a system of allowances which has now caused such damage to the reputation of all those involved in politics.

 

It is now clear that parliamentary reform is likely to be imposed on MPs by external pressure from the standards watchdog, auditors and the electorate.

 

Is an interesting point.

 

It's the problem you always find, that without outside scrutiny and potential consequences, corruption becomes rampant even from people that had the best of intentions initially.

 

Which is clearly shown by the vast number of MPs that may have "done nothing wrong" by the technical letter of the rules (there's more than a few that may actually have done something legally wrong too, of course), but morally were clearly effectively defrauding the public (and that they all knew this is shown by how hard they fought to cover it all up).

[snakehips 0]

I'd love to see someone bring a private prosecution against an MP for fraud. Not sure if that would be possible, though, what with parliamentary privilege and all that shte.

[Papa Lazaru 0]

Frank Skinner on question time the other week nailed it on the head for me. All the MP's saying its time to change the system and that its wrong and the public have a right to be angry etc. he simply pointed out the only reason they're all doing ths is because they were caught. Not because they have any remorse or consience over what they did, just that they've been found out and that if they hadn't they would have been doing it till the end of their careers.

 

There was a good article by ex tory Gerry Hayes (the bubble-permed guy who used to be on James Whale's tv show i think!) who pointed out it was Thatcher and her lot who sneaked all this stuff in because they couldn't get away with publically giving themselves ludicrous wage increases back in the day so did it by the back door as it were and that its been going on since then and this lot just happen to be the ones who've been caught.

Edited May 11, 2009 by Papa Lazaru

[Fop 1]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8045414.stm

 

 

Pet lip on this guy.

 

 

£64,000 (and he can't do maths £64,000 x 2 != £92,000 ) is their "wage", but in reality most of them are effectively bring home ~£300,000 a year.

 

And is £64,000 really so bad? Even compared to the average UK wage (which is much higher than the wage the average person in the UK actually gets of course as it is massively skewed upwards by a few very high earners )

 

The pension an MP ends up with for just 1 session of parliament is enough for to make someone fair comfortable for life. The food expenses MP's can claim are pretty much equal to the basic state pension.

 

 

It's no wonder they get so mad with this out in the open.

[Park Life 71]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8045414.stm

 

 

Pet lip on this guy.

 

 

£64,000 (and he can't do maths £64,000 x 2 != £92,000 ) is their "wage", but in reality most of them are effectively bring home ~£300,000 a year.

 

And is £64,000 really so bad? Even compared to the average UK wage (which is much higher than the wage the average person in the UK actually gets of course as it is massively skewed upwards by a few very high earners )

 

The pension an MP ends up with for just 1 session of parliament is enough for to make someone fair comfortable for life. The food expenses MP's can claim are pretty much equal to the basic state pension.

 

 

It's no wonder they get so mad with this out in the open.

 

Take it out of their salaries is the only way.

 

 

 

 

 

The costs of swimming pool maintenance are among expenses claims by eight Tory MPs, according to the Daily Telegraph.

 

Its report, based on leaked receipts, also says claims were made for clearing a moat, buying horse manure and mowing and rolling paddocks.

 

Tory leader David Cameron is said to be considering disciplinary action.

 

The latest allegations come as one MP has prepared a motion of no confidence in Commons Speaker Michael Martin over his handling of the expenses furore.

 

The Telegraph has already published expenses claims made by Labour and Tory frontbenchers, including those for a lawnmower, dog food and changing light bulbs.

 

'Angry'

 

The latest stories relate mainly to backbench Conservative MPs.

 

Mr Cameron said: "I am angry about what has happened. It is out of order. Some of this is an abuse of taxpayers' money, and I am going to deal with it."

 

The BBC understands that he is currently meeting some Conservative MPs whose expenses have been featured to get their side of the story.

 

One of the options is that they pay back any claim judged to be "excessive" - or face losing the Conservative whip.

 

The Telegraph says former minister Douglas Hogg, MP for Sleaford and North Hykeham, submitted claims for more than £2,000 to clear a moat around his estate and £14,500 for a housekeeper.

[ewerk 31600]

A moat ffs.

[Park Life 71]

A moat ffs.

 

Unreal.

 

There are 19 millionaires on the Tory front bench if anyone is wondering.

[Happy Face 29]

"The pool came with the house and I needed to know how to run it. Once I was shown that one time, there were no more claims. I take care of the pool myself. I believe this represents 'value for money' for the taxpayer."

 

 

Not a fucking clue.

[Fop 1]

A moat ffs.

 

Unreal.

 

There are 19 millionaires on the Tory front bench if anyone is wondering.

 

Thing is you can kinda see it coming from the Conservatives, it's no great surprise (although still ridiculous and contemptible).

 

It's the labour MPs feathering their nests that just confirms the utter corruption of the breed (and how MP as a "job" is now view).

[Park Life 71]

A whirlwind swept through Westminster todayas the main political parties ordered their MPs to pay back excessive expenses and promised to end the worst abuses of the system immediately.

 

On a dramatic day when the parties finally responded to the anger in the country it was David Cameron, the Tory leader, who moved most quickly, directing eight shadow cabinet members, including his closest political allies, to write cheques to refund the taxpayer for improper claims or face the sack.

 

Last night, in a series of television interviews, Gordon Brown said Commons officials would meet again tomorrow to work on plans for an independent figure to lead a team tasked with going through the past four years' of receipts for every MP before ruling on whether the claim was legitimate. But the Tories contested any suggestion that an agreement had been reached last night.

 

The communities secretary, Hazel Blears, also appeared on television brandishing a cheque she said she intended to send to the Inland Revenue, saying she planned to pay back the £13,332 made by avoiding capital gains tax when she sold one of her homes.

 

In a press conference today Cameron said he was shocked by revelations that party grandees, playing to the worst ­Conservative stereotype, had been claiming for chandeliers, moats, horse manure and the cleaning of swimming pools. The Tory leader ordered backbenchers, including some of the most senior figures in his party, to follow any payback instructions from a newly established party panel or face expulsion.

 

After addressing an emergency meeting of his parliamentary party, he said: "People are right to be angry that some MPs have taken public money to pay for things few could afford. You've been let down.

[Craig 6702]

Hazel Blears is paying back capital gains tax to the Inland Revenue - isn't that techincally an admission of tax evasion?

 

As for claiming for expenses that they can do but know that in reality they shouldn't - isn't that similar to benefit fraud??

 

In both events, if it was a member of Joe Public rather than pay it back, we'd be fined and sent to prison.

 

As for the bloke who claimed for the fine he received for non payment of council tax.......