UK NEWS

MPS BATTLE TO KEEP THE GRAVY TRAIN ROLLING ON

OPPONENT: David Cameron

Thursday June 26,2008

By Alison Little

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(4)

MPS could give themselves a green light to continue splashing taxpayers’ cash on their expenses.

Under proposals published yesterday they would be able to claim a no-questions-asked £4,200-a-year perk.

And spending of £19,600 a year will be allowed on second homes – although MPs will not be able to use the money to buy items such as televisions and furniture.

The most an MP could claim would be £23,800 a year – only £206 below the current limit.

The proposals, which will be voted on next Thursday, were made by the Members Estimate Committee, led by Speaker Michael Martin – himself recently cleared in an expenses inquiry.

Under the scheme MPs could make £30-a-day “subsistence” claims for up to 140 days a year.

They would not have to provide receipts to support their claims.

Critics said the system could still be exploited. Matthew Elliott of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: “What’s to stop an MP using the money for a TV, an iPod or a holiday? You’ve got to demand receipts or the system will be open to abuse.”

Conservative backbench MP Douglas Carswell – whose leader David Cameron is thought likely to oppose the £30-a-day payments, said: “In effect this is a £4,200 salary increase. What’s to stop someone claiming it then running off to John Lewis.”

The proposals are meant to tackle controversy over how MPs use their allowances, particularly the tax-free additional costs allowance which is supposed to help MPs who are not from London keep two homes.

The committee recommended replacing the allowance with a new two-part, tax-free system.

A budget of up to £19,600 a year would cover the cost of a second home and would be limited to things like mortgage payments, repairs and maintenance. Claims would have to be backed by receipts.

The £30-a-day payment would be on top of that, while the current £400-a-month allowance would be scrapped.

ITS ABOUT TIME

26.06.08, 10:23pm

they have finaly caught up with balls ans mrs any body with a brain could see how much they have been claiming as expences and yet he has the cheek to rant on about issues he knows nothing about, another one along with blears who is only in it for the money and F to the british people, IM ALLRIGHT JACK HA HA.

• Posted by: allout • Report Comment

WHERE DO I START

26.06.08, 10:01pm

well i am a pensioner who still has to work i get £107 state pension £130 from work and because i am disabled i get £13 tax credit out of this i pay £29 tax. This year i was informed i had been overpaid by the tax office and they where looking into my case, i found out that they had checked my credit rating when i asked was that not against my human rights i got no answer. If they can do that to me how do these robbers (MPs) get away with claiming expences and not producing reciept, IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE WHO CAN ANSWER THAT QUESTION.

• Posted by: allout • Report Comment

SO WE DON'T TRUST THEM?

26.06.08, 9:15am

OK, they have abuse our trust with their expenses, and we get upset about that, big deal, only £25k. If you look at what else we trust them with, surely that's more significant.

It's their job to understand politics so we don't have to. As our elected representatives they are supposed to make sure we the people get a fair deal.

If a company hired a rep, they might be fairly relaxed about what can be put on expenses. That would part of the package. However if the rep was abusing the expenses to the extent were trust was damaged, the company might also take a closer look at what the rep was actually doing for the company. In many cases the rep might be moving business over to a competitor and having got themselves sacked, keep all the spoils.

I think we need to keep a closer eye on our political reps to make sure they are not doing any other funny business, like selling off the best bits of the company to our European competitors.

• Posted by: Wayland • Report Comment