Expenses exploitation goes beyond a joke

Mar 30 2009 by Paul Dale, Birmingham Post

As embarrassing apologies go, Jacqui Smith’s – and her hapless husband’s – for claiming back the cost of renting two blue movies will be hard to beat.

With the embattled Home Secretary already embroiled in a row over money she has claimed by staying at her sister’s home, this latest revelation is undoubtedly one she could well do without.

But while the nature of the films erroneously highlighted in a recent expenses claim will certainly amuse many, the wider issue of how MPs are using their gold-plated expenses is certainly no laughing matter.

In this instance, Ms Smith has offered an unreserved apology. She was claiming back the cost of her internet subscription – no more than a few pounds a week – and she ‘mistakenly’ included the television package alongside it.

However, there have been no such apologies regarding the £116,000 claimed towards her family home in Worcestershire after designating her sister’s home in London as her main residence – much to the surprise of the neighbours, who only rarely see the Home Secretary’s security guards outside the property.

There has also been no apology from Employment Minister Tony McNulty over the £60,000 he has claimed for a house where his parents live and which he claims to have used for constituency business, even though it is just nine miles from his own home.

Yesterday, it was revealed than another Labour MP has claimed more than £300,000 on his constituency home in east London – where he lives with his family – by claiming that a one-bedroomed schoolhouse and caravan in Colchester is his main residence.

Far from an apology, Harry Cohen claims he is just following a tradition begun by previous Conservative administrations that MPs should squeeze every last penny out of the expenses system.

Both Ms Smith and Mr McNulty claim they have stayed within the letter of the law when it came to their expenses claims, but few would support the view that their claims were even close to the spirit of the regulations for parliamentary expenses.

MPs have often justified the huge expenses allowance by claiming that their salaries are significantly lower than those enjoyed in similar positions in the private sector, but this is disingenuous at best and downright insulting at worst. With a basic salary of more than £60,000 per annum – and more than 100 Labour MPs alone take home considerably more through additional governmental and committee responsibilities – even the most junior of MPs earns more than the vast majority of people in the UK.

Let’s hope that the latest revelations from the Smith household act as a catalyst for root-and-branch reform of what is becoming a huge embarrassment for the Mother of all Parliaments.