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Ken chalked up £13,000 expenses in his last year
Paul Waugh and Katharine Barney17 Jul 2008
An investigation has been ordered into how the Mayor can claim expenses after it was revealed Ken Livingstone spent more than £13,000 in his last year at City Hall.
The London Assembly Audit Panel has ordered a review of the rules after being shocked at the amount that had been claimed by the former mayor and Assembly member on travel and entertaining. Today's publication of expense claims for the last financial year revealed significant differences in the amounts claimed by individual members.
Audit Panel chairman Navin Shah said: "We must ensure that the rules governing what can be claimed are justifiable and transparent."
The former mayor spent £5,460 visiting other countries and £6,811 on "other expenses" thought to be entertaining.
The annual figures show that former deputy chairman of the Assembly, Tory Brian Coleman, spent £8,231 on taxis despite having been told his travel habits were overstepping an acceptable limit and earning himself the nickname "catch-a-cab Coleman".
His largest one-day taxi claim was £656 on 13 December and included two and a half hours' "waiting time". Mr Coleman's taxi claims include £391 on 16 October for an "event at the House of Commons". The total amount spent on taxis by Mr Livingstone and the Assembly members was £17,850.
The amount of money spent on foreign travel by the former deputy mayor Nicky Gavron has also raised eyebrows. The Labour member, who was the former mayor's "green" envoy, spent £6,574 on trips abroad - more than Mr Livingstone. Since she was reappointed deputy mayor in 2004, Ms Gavron has flown abroad 28 times. Emma Beal, Mr Livingstone's-partner and former women's adviser, spent a total of £1,633 including £358 on taxis, £373 on foreign travel and £801 on "other expenses".
Reader views (21)
I wonder how much a trip to see Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro costs...
- Duncan Schofield, Harrow, London, UK, 22/07/2008 21:35
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These expenses seem perfectly reasonable - whilst the single expensive taxi day is excessive, it seems fairly obviously a result of bad forward planning (or lack of opportunity to?) rather than anything gratuitous.
Can I take this opportunity to ask for a full public exposure of the expense account of the Editor of the Evening Standard?
A teeny bit above £13k, I'd imagine?
- Cait Hurley, London, UK, 17/07/2008 16:51
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Isn't building relationship by taking them for wine and dine a bribe in kind?
- Prasad, Sidcup, 17/07/2008 16:24
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Assembly Member Brian Coleman claimed £8231 for taxis for 2007/8, Coleman also claimed the maximum £1720 for the use of a travel card, bringing the total cost to almost £10,000 for the year. He was previously criticised for claiming over 10 grand on taxis alone the year before.
Coleman is a Conservative Assembly member and chair of LFEPA.
Now- about the "Labour Good-Conservative Bad" comments...
It's also worth remembering that Ken would have been spending a load more if,like other Mayors, he had a Guzzling Limo to travel around in, as well as to and from home.
Comments?
- Patience, London, 17/07/2008 15:45
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I thought we were paying for the Olympics to regenerate the East End? The whole point of Taxis is that you book them when you need them 2.5 hours "waiting time" is only undertaken by arrogant fat cats who are not paying themselves. Is the Aquarium being built?
- Dave, London, 17/07/2008 15:07
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This is an audit being carried out by Boris's Tory cronies with an explicit anti-Ken agenda, and the most damning thing they can come up with is that money 'may have' (re-read the first line) been wasted - in their skewed opinion. Hilarious.
- Charlie, Soho
Really? Why has your beloved Ken not answered these allegations with some kind of justifiable response? Unless he's guilty of them, maybe? I suppose you're happy to support a Mayor who squanders tens of millions on pointless schemes and employs aides who are currently under police investigation for misuse of public funds.
- Mike Stern, london, 17/07/2008 15:07
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Charlie, Soho
I can only take it you have no brain. The figures don't lie or are they made up as well?
- Oscar, London, 17/07/2008 15:06
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Even if the £6811 was spent on entertaining (which according to the story is guesswork), this doesn't strike me as particularly shocking for someone in the mayor's position. Surely the job is to build relationships with senior, influential figures here and abroad? Inevitably that's going to include some wining and dining - and £135 a week sounds fairly reasonable to me.
- Dan, London, 17/07/2008 15:04
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It is perhaps time to look at who authorises the payment of such blatantly high expenses. If anyone, in any walk of life, presented a one-day taxi claim for £656 it would simply be thrown out.
Keep on lighting up those dark places Boris.
- Steve, Cirencester, UK, 17/07/2008 15:02
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Ken man of the people? No way, how can he fritter that much cash and claim to represent the people. If I spent my works cash I'd need receipts detailing everything and have to justify it. The man's a disgrace.
- Elliot Franks, Camden, 17/07/2008 15:00
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How curious, the earlier story about funding of an aquatic centre has been removed and the reader comments have been tacked on to a marginally less insubstantial anti-Ken story. What's going on?
- Charlie, Soho, 17/07/2008 14:34
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£13K expenses running a city the size and complexity of London seems like an absolute bargain to me. I bet Bozo, sorry Bojo, will turn out to be far more expensive.
- Roy Stilling, Gillingham, Kent, 17/07/2008 14:17
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Are we supposed to be surprised again at yet another way this man was throwing our money down the drain?
- Deborah, London, 17/07/2008 13:55
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Ken's supporters are so predictable - Tory = bad, Labour = good.
Can't they think without trotting out the same set of tired and blinkered stereotypes?
As a non-Brit, I can't get a handle on the party political/class war mindset in the UK, which I find as irritating as a conditioned response rather than a thoughtful one and as relevant to life in the 21st century as the simplistic Temperance or Trade Union pamphlets of 50 years ago which met a need in their time but are quaint museum pieces now.
The stereotypes obscure the real enemy, which is neither Tory nor Labour but greed and corruption.
- Kiwi Expat, London, UK, 17/07/2008 12:51
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What's wrong with putting facilities in the East End?
- Matt, london, 17/07/2008 12:45
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This is an audit being carried out by Boris's Tory cronies with an explicit anti-Ken agenda, and the most damning thing they can come up with is that money 'may have' (re-read the first line) been wasted - in their skewed opinion. Hilarious.
- Charlie, Soho, 17/07/2008 12:10
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Anyone who sees an aquarium in the east end as an "iconic tourist attraction" is just the sort of chap who would no doubt see the potential in a special flood plains regeneration housing investment scheme I have going.
Cash only of course!
- Scott, london, 17/07/2008 11:58
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Millions of pounds wasted by whom exactly? Where is the actual paper-trail to support such a statement?
Whilst this regeneration project may have been supported by the Mayor the aquarium is actually being built and run by the Zoological Society of London not the LDA.
- John, London, 17/07/2008 11:25
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Aquariums need to be huge to afford even a semblance of normality for the creatures kept within them. They cost a huge amount to run and maintain properly. If they fail in this, the creatures held captive in them suffer terribly. I hope no more zoos or aquariums, dolphinariums are built.
- Helen, norwich, 17/07/2008 11:20
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Dear old Ken with his cheque book and pen, it's a terrible shame that he won't be able to pointlessly chuck public money around any more.
- T Benn, London, 17/07/2008 10:21
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Surely promoting regeneration is one of the Mayor's responsibilities, I don't see how Ken is at fault here for pushing forward with an iconic tourist attraction to spearhead regeneration in one of London's most deprived areas.
- Darren, London, 17/07/2008 10:07
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