Morning:
13°c
Tories in trouble - claim for 25 lightbulbs
11.05.09
Michael Gove
The Shadow Schools Secretary spent more than £7,000 in five months furnishing his London home before “flipping” his second home designation to a new house bought in Surrey and then claimed a further £13,000 in moving costs.
He and wife Sarah Vine bought the North Kensington home, near David Cameron's own house, for £430,000 in 2002. Around a third of the money was spent at Oka, an upmarket interior design firm established by Lady Annabel Astor, Mr Cameron's mother-in-law.
Mr Gove bought a £331 Chinon armchair from the store, a £750 Loire table - although Commons authorities only allowed him to claim £600 - and a birch Camargue chair worth £432.
He even claimed for a £34.99 cot mattress from Toys R Us, despite children's equipment being banned under Commons rules. Mr Gove has agreed to repay the mattress cost. He said that all items bar one were “below the acceptable threshold costs for furniture”.
In 2006, the shadow minister moved from west London and transferred the second home allowance to a £395,000 house near Guildford in his Surrey Heath constituency. Mr Gove said his £13,259 moving costs were necessary to have a home “to effectively discharge my Parliamentary duties”.
Andrew Lansley
The Shadow Health Secretary spent more than £4,000 of taxpayer's money renovating his country home months before he sold it.
He had his thatched Tudor cottage in Melbourn, Cambridgeshire, painted inside and out, with expensive Farrow and Ball paint used on some rooms, at a cost of £2,000. He also spent more than £500 having the driveway “reshingled” and grass reseeded.
Mr Lansley sold the house for £433,000 but months before he “flipped” his expenses claim to his Georgian flat in London, where he spent thousands more, including £750 for a Laura Ashley sofa.
Some of the claims appear to contravene Parliamentary rules, which forbid “luxury or premium grade” furnishings or using the public purse to “enhance” their property.
Mr Lansley tried, and failed, to claim for a £116 barbecue.
The Shadow Minister said that he changed his designated home from Melbourn to London because in 2005 his daughter started nursery school in Cambridgeshire. He said the work on the cottage was “within the rules”
Alan Duncan
The Shadow Commons Leader - who oversees his party's policy on MPs' expenses - claimed thousands of pounds for his garden, but stopped after agreeing the claims “could be considered excessive”.
In a three-year period, he recouped more than £4,000 for gardening - even though it is unclear whether this was necessary for the performance of his Parliamentary duties. He has not been asked to repay the money despite later concerns over the garden claims.
The bill for £3,194 for gardening in March 2007 was not paid by the fees office, which wrote to Mr Duncan suggesting that the claim might not be “within the spirit” of the rules.
However, by then the multi-millionaire MP for Rutland and Melton had claimed £4,000 of gardening costs that were approved. In a letter to the MP, the office said that it expected gardening costs “to cover only basic essentials such as grass cutting”. Mr Duncan submitted receipts showing that his gardener was being paid £6 an hour for up to 16 hours a week in grounds of less than an acre.
In March 2007, Mr Duncan claimed £598 to overhaul a ride-on lawn-mower and then a further £41 to fix a puncture a month later.
Oliver Letwin
The Tories' policy chief claimed more than £2,000 to fix a leaking pipe under his tennis court.
The work was carried out at as part of £80,000 of expenses for his Somerset home near his Dorset constituency.
During the summer of 2005, records showed that Mr Letwin took out a second mortgage for £100,000 on the cottage. He then increased the amount of mortgage interest that he wanted to claim by from the public purse by more than £300 a month.
The most controversial claim was in September 2006 for £2,145 “for works to lay a new 25 mm pipoeline to replace the existing leaking pipeline under the tennis court”. Mr Letwin said:”I was served a statutory notice by the water companay to repair the leaking pipe, which runs underneath the tennis court. No improvements were made to the tennis court or garden”.
David Willetts
The Shadow Universities and Skills Secretary billed the taxpayer £115 plus VAT for workmen to replace 25 lightbulbs at this second home in west London. He also charged £80 to “change lights in bathroom”, part of a £2,191 invoice for odd jobs that included cleaning a shower head.
Parliamentary officials agreed the cost but cut £1,000 from the bill including £175 for having a dog enclosure built.
Mr Willetts - dubbed “two brains” for his formidable intellect - said that he had a workman to change his lightbulbs because “we had problems with our lighting system which had caused many lights to fuse and needed the attention of an electrician”. He said Commons authorities were right to reject his claim for a dog pen.
Francis Maude
Francis Maude, the shadow minister in charge of preparing the Tories for government, owned his London house outright but bought a nearby flat with a £345,000 mortgage in 2006 and claimed £35,000 in mortgage interest over two years.
When he rented out his house and moved into the flat the Commons also paid £387.50 for his removals plus £820 for cleaning and £2,237 for a service charge. His second home claims soared from £5,519 in 2005/6 to £22,110 in 2006/7 and £23,083 last year.
The files leaked to the Daily Telegraph reveal that in 2004 he tried to claim for mortgage interest on his constituency home but this was refused by the Commons fees office.
Reader views (12)
GBP125.00 to change 25 light bulbs.
Dog food.
Bathplugs.
Pornographic movies.
Improvements to a tennis court.
Now I hear that Gorbals Mick is attempting to push all this sleaze under the carpet by focusing on the fall guy who divulged the information to the media.
Absolutely scandalous.
Joe Public will have their say at the ballot box on June 4th 2009.,
- Reuben Camara, Morecambe UK
after reading and listening to brown and cameron nothing is going to change. as a trained socialogist ,what i hear is denial and hope that the statement will stop the agro.
these stsatements are words with out meaning.if they want to be beleived ,they would have come to the media and astated thus
all the mps that have abused the system will be sacked forthwith.there will be a brief interlude to arrange a date for a general election.all tory front benchers as of this minute have been demoted. BUT nothing has been said .its smoke and mirrors.and sadly they are expecting the populace to beleive them.they still have not grasped the situation. and if they cant grasp the simple idea of corruption what the hell are they doing running the country!!!
- Mikeee, peterborough uk
Get rid of him Dave...set an example.
- Rosie, watford
I think everyone who said on Friday that this was a load of Tory spin and the Telegraph won't be publishing info about the Conservative Party, owe that newspaper an apology.
- Roz, France
I think it's sad that so many campaigners, activists and taxpayers have been let down by morally bankrupt MPs. These men should pay every penny back. They should stop telling the public they have operated within the rules, when the rules are clearly totally corrupt.
How dare they spend taxpayers' money in this manner, especially since so many families are being thrown out of their homes and jobs. How dare they moralise about greedy bankers, when all the time they have their hands in our wallets, and how dare they have the audacity to think that voters would now want any of them in power. Their true colours have emerged and they look like charlatans.
Parliament needs dissolving, and hard working, honest candidates should step forward - people who want the best for others, such as charity workers and those who help the public without expecting vast sums of money in return. We need people with passion and conviction to return to politics, not spivs who crave greed above all else. Most of all, we need people who value honesty.
- Fiona, UK
I really dare not say how mad this makes me. I am stuggling to pay my bills, the price of heating and lighting a home rises steadily as does food, I can't afford to run my car and yet these 'people' are troughing out at the publics expence and they say 'well its all wintin the rules and we have done nothing wrong'.
- Glen Livesey, Huddersfield UK
Let us first put this into perspective shall we?
Tory Lord Naseby is a representative of what was ‘Thatcher the Destroyer Tory Party’ and he has the Gaul to suggest we dissolve Parliament amid these disclosures over MPs expense accounts. Now at least we can read that the Tory Party are not all ‘Lilly White’ and totally without any claims for excessive expenses.
Gordon Brown is not my favourite guy, so to speak, yet many in the public sector have come to admire this little chap (Gordon Brown) who soldiers on after being Knifed in the back by back bencher’s and most of all knifed in the sides by front bench ministers who have blatantly exceeded their allowances.
We must expect the knives to come out from the opposition parties, yet so much harm is being done by trusted members of Browns Cabinet, so go for a re-shuffle Gordon and come back fighting even stronger.
The Tories only have one tact and that’s Cuts,Cuts and more Cuts.
Signed Carl Barron Chairman of agpcuk
- Carl Barron, Christchurch, Dorset
Simply the most ridiculous thing I have ever read.
We are in a recession, people are lossing their jobs yet mp's are using our money to buy second homes and tennis courts.
My understanding of expenses is cost incured during your work day not painting your house or paying a gardener.
Pay it all back!
- Sindy, Reading
One rule for the House of Parliament, one rule for the gullable electorate. The houses of Parliament have disgraced & abused our democratic system,insulted the electorate & should be made to pay all the trivial expenses claimed back.
On a monthly basis all M.Ps Ex's should be published in all daily/weekend papers.
Parliament should now bw dissolved & a general election should take place.
- Derek Livingstone, Wilberfoss York
These MP's of all 3 parties are parasites. If someone on benefits was to claim anything extra, they will find themselves in court, and having to repay all the additional money. Why do our MP's not have to do the same?
- Maya, London
Is it possible to make these stories any funnier than they are? Here's one about Prescott attempting to justify his claims: http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/UnNews:John_%E2%80%9Cbig_job%E2%80%9D_Prescott_defends_his_expense_claims
Lots of scope for more fun and games with the latest tranche of Tory claims.
I'd have allowed the claim for a dog kennel, though, since scientists have shown that dogs are as aware of unfairness as some humans (excluding MPs, obviously). Therefore a dog must be essential for an MP to do his job.
- Matty, London, UK
So the Tories are as bad as Labour. I expect we'll here about the Lid-Dems next.
The whole affair of expenses just shows how cynical, greedy and out of touch our MP's really are.
Unfortunately we have no alternative but to grin and bear it whilst their back balances get bigger.
- Paul, Exeter UK
