PRIME MINISTER Gordon Brown apologised yesterday on behalf of politicians of all parties for the scandal over MPs’ allowances now widely held to have discredited the current parliament.
Conservative party leader David Cameron had got his apology in first on Sunday – ahead of the latest disclosures in the Daily Telegraph, this time implicating senior members of his shadow cabinet in abuse of the system in order to maximise spending on multiple properties or, in some cases, expand their property portfolios.
Tory front-benchers Michael Gove and Andrew Lansley denied “flipping” the designations of their primary and second homes in order to maximise the benefit the benefit of the “second home” allowance, insisting that their family circumstances had changed, while David “Two Brains” Willetts battled to explain that he had not actually charged the taxpayer £115 (€127) plus VAT to have workmen replace 25 lightbulbs at his second home in London.
The shadow cabinet office spokesman and former party chairman, Francis Maude, meanwhile, reportedly claimed almost £35,000 over two years for the payment of mortgage interest on a London flat just a few hundred yards from the house he had previously owned outright. In 2006 Mr Maude took out a £345,000 mortgage on the flat, then rented out the house (bought with his own money) and began claiming on the flat, which is in a grade-two listed building complete with gym and 24-hour concierge, according to the newspaper
Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling was also among those in the spotlight, apparently having claimed thousands to renovate a central London flat just 27 km (17 miles) from his constituency home.
While Mr Cameron himself was described as a “Mr Clean” with some of the most straightforward of expenses claims, the man who oversees the party’s policy on MPs’ expenses, multi-millionaire Alan Duncan, faced the embarrassing disclosure that the Commons fees office had rejected his “excessive” gardening claims.
Mr Duncan said he had raised the question with the authorities and resorted to the now-familiar defence that “the system” itself was to blame and needed to be changed.
It remained unclear whether that defence would save the ministerial or Commons career of communities secretary Hazel Blears, however, as a Labour colleague, John Mann MP, said anyone found to have been guilty of tax avoidance should not be a Labour MP.
His intervention kept the heat on Ms Blears after the disclosure that she sold a “second home” in London but paid no capital gains tax on the £45,000 profit because the property was registered as being her primary residence.
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg also resumed his insistence that a new basic expenses system should cover only London rent and utility bills and that MPs should be stopped from “making a penny of profit” by “in effect, playing the property market”.
His call came as the Commons Commission met last night to consider new audit arrangements after Commons speaker Michael Martin – who has been frequently criticised over his expenses – slapped down Labour MP Kate Hoey after she suggested it was a waste of police resources to investigate the the leak to the Daily Telegraph.