UK NEWS

MPS WANT ‘NO STRINGS’ £23,000

BLAIR: £10,000 kitchen refit

Wednesday May 28,2008

By Gabriel Milland Political Correspondent

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(12)

MPs are planning to avoid embarrassing revelations over their expenses – by awarding themselves a “no strings attached” £23,000 handout.

The move is likely to be the key recommendation of a committee chaired by Commons Speaker Michael Martin into the long list of scandals associated with MPs’ perks.

Instead of claiming item-by-item for the so-called Additional Costs Allowance, which is supposed to help MPs to finance a second home, they would simply receive a cheque for the maximum amount.

It would also mean that the public would again not be able to discover how their money was being spent.

When 14 MPs were finally forced to publish details of their claims last week, it emerged that Tony Blair claimed £112 to get council workmen to clear his garage and spent £10,000 refitting the kitchen of his Sedgefield constituency home in County Durham. Gordon Brown claimed £32 for lightbulbs and £99 for a subscription to Sky television.

Former Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett tried to claim £1,920 for a new pergola and plants for her home. But Commons finance staff thought this was excessive and disallowed £600 for plants from the bill.

Health Minister Ann Keen, MP for Brentford and Isleworth, and her husband, Alan Keen, who represents next-door Feltham and Heston, used £175,000 of taxpayers’ cash to pay for a £500,000 flat as a second home – despite both their seats being less than 15 miles from the Commons. They also claimed for life assurance premiums.

Following a High Court ruling, all MPs’ claims under the Additional Costs Allowance will be released this autumn.

This raises the prospect of the Commons authorities having to produce as much as a million pages of documentation revealing in detail how public money is spent by MPs on mortgage payments, utility bills and renovations.

If a simple lump sum payment were made to all MPs, the need for these documents would disappear and there would be a considerable cash boost for the many MPs who currently claim less than the full £23,000 permitted.

The Members Estimate Committee launched its review of the system after the row over former Tory MP Derek Conway paying his son from the public purse for apparently little work.

Last night it was also claimed that MPs are seeking a rise of as much as £13,000 in their basic pay, taking a backbencher’s salary from £61,820 to about £75,000.

A review by the ex-chairman of the Senior Salaries Review Body Sir John Baker is expected to produce proposals to end the system of MPs voting their own rises.

SO DO THE ARMED FORCE'S

28.05.08, 10:52am

This makes me sick. Why should MP's be entitled to all this 'allowance' and second homes? Armed Forces don't get it, yet are expected to put their lives on the line in their jobs.
MP's should get no more than a government owned (taxpayer owned) apartment which they do not profit from.
No wonder they are so happy putting up taxes galore, they are totally insulated from them.
The police should be brought in to investigate everything that has been claimed so far as it amounts to little more than theft from the taxpayer.
ITS SCANDULOUS.

• Posted by: Jac16 • Report Comment

CORRUPTION

28.05.08, 9:58am

We can't stop them. We can do nothing to buck the system. MP's can do what they like. They have a majority. They make the Law. They can never be above the Law, because they will change it to suit themselves. And after a General Election there will be a different majority, but nothing will change. Until the British people have had enough of it.

• Posted by: Peter_Pan • Report Comment

ITS NOT ON

28.05.08, 9:37am

They promised to be " Whiter than White" now is the time to prove it, they have not kept that promise up 'til now,not surprising have they kept any?

• Posted by: Maggie • Report Comment

THE APPRENTICE AND YOU'R FIRED!

28.05.08, 9:16am

If these crooks, who would not be worth a penny outside the House of Conmen, want this extra £23,000 (or as reported six figure salary of £100,000), then the public would have no objection, provided that they legally agree and follow the following procedures:

(1) Abolish the 30 years secrecy law immediately and reveal all the corrupt practices of all the politicians since the introduction of this law;

(2) Give up all their crooked allowances, holidays, pensions,etc., and the part time jobs - directorships, executive postions, etc., they and their family memebers have outside the House of Conmen and agree to work like ordinary people - also work overtime when required without any overtime pay;

(3) Declare all their assets and that of thier partner and siblings, when they enter and leave the House of Conmen;

(4) Bring to justice and testify against the crooks who waged illegal wars in foreign countries - particularly Iraq - and lined their pockets through stealth taxes and crooked deals and,their legal advisors and cronies;

and last, but not the least -

(5) To work in the House of Conmen, which should be branded GB Limited and run like a corporation (where incompetent people are immediately booted out without any compensation or gold plated pensions), appear before Alan Sugar's The Apprentice, wag their tails, speak meekly and politely and be insulted, and prove that they are capable of carrying out the responsibilities given to them -

OR

YOU'R FIRED!!!

• Posted by: Nalin • Report Comment

CORRUPTION IS THE COMMON FACTOR AT WESTMINSTER

28.05.08, 8:30am

Corruption , thats what binds all the three parties together, who would have ever thought that British politics once the envy of the world could be dragged to depths of despair and corruption,

The Country need to rid themselves of all these people , Lib - Lab - Cons it makes no difference they get their orders from our European Masters.

This has all now spiralled out of control ,

If the Police and the Crown prosecution service had the faintest idea how to do their job correctly, there would now be a fleet of Prison vans outside the gates of Westminster to arrest each and every one of the traitors and crooks.

• Posted by: BratislavaUK • Report Comment

TRUE COLOURS

28.05.08, 8:17am

Greedy MPs that deny English cancer patients their treatments and deny British children the right to feel safe on the streets would like £23000 a year on top of their salaries as they obviously cannot manage on £60,000/ £70,000 a year.
Many people do not earn £23,000 a year !
The British govt should STOP/ THINK/ ACT !
STOP taking orders from Europe/ Coporate giants.
THINK about what you are doing to our once great and jublilant country.
ACT without cowardice to secure independence for Britain as our ancestors did!

• Posted by: marigold • Report Comment