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Brown: My Downing St flat is not free - I pay the council tax on it
Nicholas Cecil, Chief Political Correspondent08.04.09
GORDON BROWN was today forced to defend his two homes funded by the taxpayer.
The Prime Minister insisted he had to pay council tax on the flat in No11 Downing Street. The top rate in Westminster is £1,375 a year.
Mr Brown, whose salary is £194,250, also makes a payment for the grace-and-favour home, as a taxable benefit in kind, which covers utility bills.
The Prime Minister, who claimed £17,073 for his Fife constituency home in 2007/08, said regulations on MPs' expenses need reform.
"MPs have a duty to satisfy the public that public money is being spent well. I don't shirk from that responsibility," he told The Independent. He stressed he always abided by Commons regulations.
Mr Brown has agreed to meet Tory leader David Cameron to discuss how to overhaul the expenses system in the wake of the storm over Chancellor Alistair Darling, Housing Minister Margaret Beckett and Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon who rent out London flats while living in grace-and-favour homes and claiming expenses for another home.
But there is no evidence they have broken any rules and are believed to have paid council tax on their grace-and-favour homes which are treated as a taxable benefit in kind.
Labour sources accused Mr Cameron of exploiting the row by pledging to scrap publicly-funded second homes. They say the system will be shaken up by the next election.
Reader views (34)
well that's alright then; as long as he pays the council tax, but what about all the other 'expences'?
not to mention his other homes and there ongoing expences;
who pays those?
- M.O'Brien, london.uk
His claim confirms his absolute arrogance. He is totallyj out of touch with the mood of the nation - which is one of outrage at MPs claims for "second" homes. As tax payers have paid for and furnished these "second" homes then when this lot are kicked out of office in 2010 I demand that the homes be sold and the money returned to the public purse.
- R.F., Yorks, UK
What constitutes free? Something that costs nothing? Something that costs so little in relation to your income that it is of no consequence. At £1,324, Mr Brown's council tax bill represents just 0.7% of his income. In every sense he lives there for free.
I am incandescent with rage at the corruption, greed and self serving nature, of the incompetent thieves we are unfortunate to have running the country.
- Adam, Harrow, UK
Greame, Tyne and Wear.
You may well be voting Labour ??? Where have you been for the last twelve years, living on Mars ?
- John E, Northants UK
I think Brown's comments simply show how out of touch with public opinion he is.
- Lee, London
I feel good for not voting for him, but I feel very, very bad that I never got the chance to vote against him. I will enjoy the next general election. Oh boy, will I enjoy it!!!
- Ian Olive, Nanteuil, France
It's only because he forgot to put the bill on his expenses...
- Ian Olive, Nanteuil, France
There's a simple solution to the problem of MPs expense allowances.
MP's allowances should be the same as those allowed by Revenue and Customs for any taxpayer who has two places of work.
Advantages:
1) It's fair. What's good enough for the taxpayer should be good enough for MP's.
2) There's no need to invent a new set of allowances for MP's. These allowances have been developed over a long period and can be adopted immediately. Lots of people have more than one place of work: MP’s aren’t a special case. If the taxman allows normal taxpayers to claim an item against tax, then MP’s would be reimbursed; If the taxman doesn’t allow it then MP’s should pay out of their own pockets like the rest of us.
3) If MP's don't like the Revenue and Customs rules, they can change them - probably to the benefit of thousands of taxpayers.
- Richard Tweed, Croydon UK
Brown is so out of touch with people of today and he wonders why everyone hates him!!
- Mike, London England
OUR tax payable on a modest house in Guildford is £2,390 per anun and it increases every year.
Eventually it will force many pensioners out of their homes if not repealed.
Does this man like most M.P's not know how the hard pressed tax payers live.
- Bernard Parke, GUILDFORD
Yes, and of course due to this unjust COUNCIL TAX many hard pressed pensioners pay as much as people living in very fashionable areas.
That must include the P.M.
Buy-to -let business people, not only get tax relief on interest that they pay, but no COUNCIL TAX is paid if they let to some form of a person calling themselves a STUDENT.
This tax must be must be put on a broader tax base.
- Bernard Parke, GUILDFORD
It is time that this tax relates to the ability to pay.
The Inland Revenue charges other mere mortals by treating rent free accommodation as benefit in kind. Also theses same mere mortals have to pay capital gains tax on selling any property that is not the main home.
- Ian, Reading, England
Can not believe I have to pay more council tax than Brown.This form of tax is disgracefull,I earn less than 10% of this Bafoon,but pay more council tax than him,a bloody disgrace.
- David, london
I have no wish to insult any visually impaired person and am fully aware that Brown has only one eye, but nevertheless the old saying that 'there are none so blind as those who will not see' applies to him.
- George, Cambridge UK
£1,375 a year !!!
My council tax in Ealing in excess of £2000 and it's not as grand as Westminster, so where's the justice in this. I commute into town everyday unlike Jackass on top of every other expense I have to pay like the rest of the population. My pension is squat thanks to BROWN. My kid is screwed education wise.
- Asw, HK
Graeme: Oh dear, or dear. You must be in the minority. I have more chance of winning the lottery than Labour getting in for a fourth term, unless of course you are a social security scrounger or an immigrant!
- Sue, Orpington, Kent
Poor man, he pays the council tax on his Downing Street flat!! He truly is unlucky.
- Jan Bors, l
This is a best “economic with the truth”. Anyone else outside MPs would have to pay tax on this as a benefit in kind. Any expense against tax is only allowable if it is wholly and exclusively used for business. MPs did not want to be taxed like anyone else – so they brought in law especially to exempt themselves!!! No one else could claim a bbq, patio furniture, flat screen tvs, hifi systems and a bath plug.
The whole system is wrong, and designed to enrich a political elite. No wonder the Palace of Westminster and the Speaker fought so hard to keep it all secret. To my mind fraud has been committed by a number of individuals – Jacqui Smith in particular and these matters should not be just investigated by the Standards Committee, but also by the Police and Courts.
- Jeremy E, London
Val, go back to your sunbathing in Mijas and stop worrying about what the Tories did in the 90s. It is what your beloved Labour party are doing to mess up the UK in 2009 that bothers us.
- Nobby Clark, Perth, Scotland
The whole system is totally wrong. We all fund our homes and our expenses out of our wages.MPs should do the same. If they need a London residence then we need to give them nurse style accomodation in a block of flats for when they are in London.
Any of these MPs who have been exposed to be fleecing us totally deserve to lose their seats but we have to wait until a general election to do this. The fact that they are working within the rules just shows how godawful and corrupt these rules are.
- Lou, London
Thomas,London:
Some of us may well be voting for Labour, you know. As far as I know, the election is a free choice. If you have such strong ideas, you could put yourself up, and see how many people want to vote for you.
- Graeme, Tyne and Wear
He probably does pay the council tax, but I bet he then claims it back as an expense, therefore costing him nowt.
- Nobby Clark, Perth, Scotland
He paid Council tax on it? Well, its more than Prescott did.
Its still wrong,wrong and wrong.
- Roger, Surrey
I am happy to live there and pay twice the council tax and not reclaim the cost.
- Tim, London
As it was Mrs Thatcher who introduced these rules and regulations regarding second homes, are we allowed to know whether or not she and John Major also claimed for their family homes whilst residing in Downing Street. I believe Sir John Major had a home in Huntingdonshire and Baroness Thatcher had a house in Flood Street. As these allowances were introduced because increasing MPs salaries would have caused a public outcry at the time, it seems reasonable to believe that Conservative Prime Ministers and Ministers also claimed them.
- Val Daniels, Mijas Costa, Spain
Bottler Brown - just call an election and let us put you and the utterly corrupt Labour party out of its misery.
- Thomas, London
£1,375 per year to live in Westminster? I wonder was Gordon able to keep a straight face while he 'defended' himself by revealing the massive financial burden he is under to live in London. You couldn't invent better comedy.
- Nick, Sydney
Crash lives in a fairy tale world of his own where all is good and he is king. The cold hard shock of reality will never seemingly trouble him.
- Marianne, SW France
Poor old Gordon. £350 a year more council tax than I have to pay to live in a tiny terrace out in the sticks.
My heart bleeds.
- Nick, Manchester
But i bet the council tax is claimed as an expense.
- Dave Davies, Basingstoke
AH ! What a shame, he has to pay council tax £1375 a year and he cannot claim for it ? Pull the other one what is the £17073 for ? He ought to let us all claim tax relief on council tax to even things up. Mine is over £2000 for Hillingdon and there is nowhere that I can claim for it on expenses. It has to come from my earnings. GET REAL BROWN and live in the real world.
- Michael, London
So Gordon Brown pays Council Tax and his utilities bills on his Downing Street flat. Hardly a hardship for a man who earns £194K and who spends most of his days in freebie conferences which no doubt keep down the food bills.
- James Elliott, Eastbourne UK
Why does the PM pay much less Council Tax than I do ?
- Cap, london
If he paid these charges out of his net wage like the rest of us, his statement would be true. He doesn't pay them, we do by subsidising MP's disgustingly high tax-free allowances for housing purposes.
- Robin, Brentford, UK
