Westminster Chimes by Jonathan Owen
From Market Matters June 09
When you are invited into Portcullis House, Westminster - the home of Parliamentary Select Committee rooms - you get a nice view from the public balcony of Right Hon. members chatting amongst themselves in the ground floor café. It’s a bit like a posh market hall, but without the empty stalls.
I visited there recently to give evidence to the Select Committee Inquiry into the Traditional Markets Industry, of which more later - but there are no prizes for guessing what MPs are talking about this week.
The ongoing scandal of MPs expenses claims affects all parties and is set to rumble on for a long time yet. Several MPs have owned-up and been suspended by their parties and more revelations and probably a few criminal prosecutions may yet emerge. Reading newspaper details of some plainly-fraudulent claims would be highly amusing if they weren’t so outrageous and I hadn’t just received a nasty letter from HM Revenue & Customs reminding me I still owed them £253 tax from last year.
Labour MPs seem obsessed with claiming for beds and mattresses whilst Conservatives concentrate on swimming pools and gardening. Lib Dems are more sensible - home improvements are their thing, whilst Sinn Fein MPs like claiming London rent but not actually attending Parliament. Highlights include Elliott Morley (Scunthorpe) and David Chaytor (Bury North) claiming repayments on mortgages paid off several years earlier and John Prescott’s £312 for mock- Tudor beams for Prescott Towers in Hull. Former Conservative Cabinet Minister, Douglas Hogg (Sleaford and North Hykeham) allegedly claimed £2,000 to have his moat cleaned, prompting suggestions it was probably clogged with receipts.
This might be entertaining, but it undermines the public’s trust in the many decent MPs who work hard for their constituents and claim only proper expenses. London Mayor, Boris Johnson said, “Frankly, looking at some of these cases, it looks to me as though plod needs to come in,” and Mark Wallace of the Tax Payers’ Alliance has promised a private prosecution if the police don’t act. In his opinion, the public is appalled that MPs think they can rectify the situation by simply paying back the taxpayers money they have stolen: “If somebody burgles a house and is caught stealing a television, they can’t say to the police, “Oh, I’m terribly sorry, I’ll give the television back,” and the police can’t say, “Oh well - that’s OK then - and not prosecute.”
Maybe it’s inevitable that being given the keys to the sweetshop would derail some MPs but others have come out of it smelling of roses. Last year the Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband (Doncaster North) only claimed the bare minimum of his rent, council tax and electricity for his constituency home, whilst Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) only claimed £147.78 for food. Being a vegetarian has obvious advantages for the taxpayer. At least this is all now under public scrutiny at Westminster but God knows what our MEPs are up to in Brussels and Strasbourg.
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