First it was Ed Balls & Yvette Cooper who were news.
In September 2007, with his wife Yvette Cooper he was accused of "breaking the spirit of Commons rules" by using MPs' allowances to help pay for a £655,000 home in north London. It was alleged that they bought a four-bed house in Stoke Newington, north London, and registered this as their second home (rather than their home in Castleford, West Yorkshire) in order to qualify for up to £44,000 a year to subsidise a reported £438,000 mortgage under the Commons Additional Costs Allowance. This is despite both spouses working in London full-time and their children attending local London schools. Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper nominated three different properties in two years to be their main residence. We paid for their million pound property portfolio plus a few of the usual “accidental” double claims.
Now it is Andrew Mackay & Julie Kirkbride
Andrew MacKay, the Conservative MP for Bracknell and his wife Julie Kirkbride, the Conservative MP for the Bromsgrove, own two homes: one in her constituency of Bromsgrove; and a flat close to Parliament in Westminster. In a case of so called "double-dipping," according to the Daily Telegraph, Mackay had used his Additional Costs Allowance to claim more than £1,000 a month in mortgage interest payments on their joint Westminster flat. His wife used her Additional Costs Allowance to claim over £900 a month on paying off the mortgage for their family home near her constituency. This means they effectively had no main home but two second homes – and were using public funds to pay for both of them. In 2008/9, MacKay claimed a total of £23,083 under Additional Costs Allowance, while Kirkbride claimed £22,575. They also claimed for each other's travel costs, with Kirkbride claiming £1,392 to meet spouse travel, while MacKay claimed £408
Is there any wonder so many people are sickened at the downright dishonest way so many of our MP's behave?
Just take the figures quoted for the Mackay/Kirkbride Additional Costs Allowance for 2008/9. Between them they claimed and were paid £45,658.
I CAN THINK OF A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO WOULD BE VERY HAPPY TO HAVE THAT AS THEIR SALARY.
And they have the nerve to say that they acted within the rules! I am not going to be happy until every last one of these dishonest people finally own up to what they've done and realise that there was absolutely no excuse for it.
ReplyDeleteSorry seems to be the hardest word to say, and sincerely mean.