British MP's - LIARS CHEATS THIEVES and FRAUDSTERS John Maples The deputy chairman of the Conservative Party declared a private members’ club as his main home to the parliamentary authorities. Andrew Mackay - Resigns over the MPs’ expenses scandal. Mr Mackay has used his second homes allowance to claim more than £1,000 a month in mortgage interest payments on their joint flat near Westminster. He is married to Julie Kirkbride who represents Bromsgrove in Worcestershire. She used her Additional Costs Allowance to claim over £900 a month on paying off the home loan 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. Earlier this week Andrew Mackay had told a local paper: “I have checked through all my expense claims over the past four years and there is nothing that stands out – I am confident there is nothing unreasonable in there at all. “There is nothing that I’ve been asked to give back but there are others who have. “The system we had used was wrong and we are sorry about that.” Elliot Morley claimed £16,000 for a repaid mortgage. (sounds like FRAUD to us) Austin Mitchell the Labour MP for Great Grimsby, became embroiled in a row with the House of Commons fees office after his £1,296 claim for bespoke shutters was turned down. There were also supermarket receipts for Sainsbury’s ginger crinkle biscuits, and bottles of whiskey and gin. The veteran MP also defended his £1,200 claim for re-upholstering sofas. The 20-year-old sofa covers were “stained with Branston pickle, whisky, and gin” and he needed them cleaned so he could impress senior Labour figures like Peter Mandelson or Neil Kinnock if they came round, he noted.  3 beds bought in the space of nine months between October 2005 and June 2006 by a female Labour backbencher at a total cost of £1,917.94 This from the MP's that sanctioned the bailifs raiding your home, removing your driving licence, wanting to remove your passport and even jailing you for failing to fill the treasuries coffers. Not surprising the agency is motivated by millions in bonuses, MP 's on £63,000 plus the help yourself expense game. Now we are not just naming and shaming CSA/C-MEC, government is tainted too. MPs expenses: The best of the begging letters
Many of the expenses claims submitted by MPs were accompanied by begging letters in which they use a variety of bizarre excuses for why they need money to do up or refurbish their second homes. Here is a selection of what was said in some of them. "From a natural justice perspective I feel a justifiable exception would be the fairest manner to deal with the current situation" – letter from Labour MP in 2006 on why he should be allowed to claim for a £3,100 Sony 40 inch TV "I object to your decision not to reimburse me for the costs of purchasing a baby's cot for use in my London home...Perhaps you might write to me explaining where my son should sleep next time he visits me in London?" – letter from Labour MP in Nov 2004 "The work surfaces are no longer hygienic and the sink unit, which is an old brown plastic double bowl, is scratched and very ugly" – letter from Conservative MP justifying the £5,347.36 cost of his new kitchen at his flat in 2007 "Ref: claim for lounge corner unit: if you feel this is excessive can I say that due to size and layout of the room a normal three-piece suite will not fit. This 'corner group' fits perfectly" Labour MP writing to the fees office in August 2006 "Old flat. Facilities out of date. Decrepit. Health reasons. Update. Living in slum. On advice, called in contractor. Recommended kitchen and bathroom replacement" – note made by official in fees office of conversation with Labour MP who had claimed £12,400 for work to his flat "I would be very grateful if (the expenses) could be paid in the last round of the year on Friday. Otherwise I might be in line for a divorce!" – letter from Andy Burnham, the Culture Secretary in 2005 after making a single claim of £16,500 on his London flat. "Reducing the payment by over £1,000 affects my cash flow. Please expedite the payment" – letter from Tory MP whose expenses payment had been reduced by the fees office "I appreciate you are under severe pressure... but, as I explained on the phone, I am away for two weeks and I don't want to leave my family destitute" – letter from Labour MP to fees office Thanks for the artice
By Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5298303/MPs-expenses-The-best-of-the-begging-letters.html For more on what they claimed for with photos
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5297251/MPs-expenses-by-numbers.html
Better still buy The Telgraph. Named and Shamed Alan Haselhurst The Deputy Speaker, who is paid £104,050, has claimed a total of £142,119 in second home allowances since 2001, despite having no mortgage on the property (Again, isn't this FRAUD?) He put in a claim for £249 every month of that year – £1 below the limit for which receipts must be submitted, meaning he did not have to include invoices for the work. Between 2004 and June 2008 the total bill for gardening at the house was £11,771. He also charged £202 for pea shingle for his driveway, £638.91 for repairs to his patio, £2,199.60 for a replacement oil tank and £193 for having his chimney swept once a year. His biggest individual bill was £3,117 for his roof to be re-tiled. The former chemical industry executive also claimed thousands of pounds for food at what he accepts is his main family home. In 2006-07 he claimed a total of £3,400 in food allowances. Sir Alan, 71 also charges £2,677 in council tax for property, Fabian Hamilton declared his mother’s London house as his main residence while over-charging the taxpayer by thousands of pounds for a mortgage on his family home in Leeds Tony Blair re-mortgaged his constituency home and claimed almost a third of the interest around the time he was buying another property in London Douglas Alexander: spent more than £30,000 doing up his constituency home - £5,183 for storm windows and £3,868 for storm doors. Stephen Byers claimed more than £125,000 for repairs and maintenance at a London flat owned outright by his partner, where he lives rent-free Margaret Beckett: Margaret Beckett's £600 claim for hanging baskets and other items for her garden was turned down Hazel Blears: claims for three different properties in a year Gordon Brown: house swap let PM claim thousands, Gordon Brown used his Parliamentary allowances to boost his expenses claims by switching his designated second home shortly before he moved into Downing Street. He also used his expenses to pay for some Noah's Ark blinds Andy Burnham: had an eight-month battle with the fees office after making a single expenses claim for more than £16,500 Alistair Darling: stamp duty paid by public, The taxpayer contributed almost £10,000 to the costs of Alistair Darling buying a new London flat after the Chancellor changed the official designation of his second home. Caroline Flint: claimed £14,000 for solicitors’ fees and stamp duty when she bought a new flat. Geoff Hoon: established a property empire worth £1.7 million after claiming taxpayer-funded expenses for at least two properties. He also bought two televisions using taxpayers' money. Lord Mandelson: questions over timing of his claimfor almost £3,000 of work on his constituency home days after he announced he was standing down as an MP. David Miliband: spending challenged by his gardener £180 every three months on his garden, He claimed almost £199 for a pram and £80 in “baby essentials” but was turned down by the Commons authorities. In another breach of the guidelines, Mr Miliband regularly claimed about £89 for undisclosed “household items”. During the five years covered by the receipts, Mr Miliband successfully claimed for a £412 hand-crafted chair, a goose-down duvet and chenille throw from Marks & Spencer, a £450 “Gatsby” John Lewis sofa, and a washing machine and tumble dryer, Paul Murphy: had a new plumbing system installed £3,500 plumbing bill at taxpayers’ expense because the water in the old one was “too hot” John Prescott:and John Prescott used his allowance to install mock Tudor beams on the front of his home and two lavatory seats in two years Jack Straw: only paid half the amount of council tax that he claimed back on his parliamentary allowances over four years Shaun Woodward: millionaire minister received £100,000 to help pay mortgage interest on a £1.35 million flat which is one of at least seven properties he owns. Phil Hope spent more than £10,000 in one year refurbishing a small London flat Keith Vaz claimed £75,500 for a second flat near Parliament even though he already lived just 12 miles from Westminster Michael Martin used taxpayers' money £1,400 to pay for chauffeur-driven cars to his local job centre and Celtic's football ground Vera Baird tried to claim the cost of Christmas tree decorations Kitty Usser asked the Commons authorities to fund extensive refurbishment of her Victorian family home Greg Barker made a £320,000 profit selling a flat the taxpayer had helped pay for Margaret Moran switched the address of her second home, allowing her to claim £22,500 to fix a dry rot problem. She installed a new £4,756.40 kitchen, fitted a £2,678 carpet and bought a bed worth £527.20 for a flat near the House of Commons. Miss Moran then switched her second-home designation to Luton and spent £2,350 on the garden, £1,823.09 on bathroom repairs, £212.50 on bedding and £4,200 on decorating. Finally, she changed her second home to the semi-detached property in Southampton, which her husband has owned since 1988, and soon after claimed £22,500 for the dry rot treatment, just less than the maximum allowance available for the whole year. Andy Burnham tried to claim back £19.99 for an Ikea bathrobe Ben Bradshaw used his allowance to pay the mortgage interest on a flat he owned jointly with his boyfriend Phil Woolas submitted receipts including comics, nappies and women's clothing as part of his claims Barbara Follett used £25,000 of taxpayers' money to pay for private security patrols at her home Barry Gardiner made £198,500 profit from a flat funded and refurbished at taxpayers' expense. Tom Watson and Iain Wright spent £100,000 of taxpayers' money on the London flat they once shared Alex Salmond claimed £400 per month for food when the Commons was not even sitting John Ried £199 pouffe, a £370 armchair and an £899 DFS sofa. He also went on a shopping spree at Marks & Spencer and submitted a £486.50 receipt for everything from slotted spoons to an ironing board. It included £34, electric scales for £25, oven mitts for £9.50, two ice cube trays for £1.50 each, a hand blender for £1.50 and four wine glasses for £7.50. he went shopping at Woolworths, where he spent 75p on two bath sponges, £1.68 on 20 coat hangers, £7 on a "magic mop" and 99p on a bucket. In June 2004 he claimed £685.84 for two visits from Rentokil. John Gummer claimed £9,000 a year for gardening, including the removal of moles from his lawn Kevin Brennan had a widescreen television delivered to his family house in Wales then claimed the £450 cost back using his London second home allowance. Pat Doherty, Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, Michelle Gildernew and Conor Murphy claimed more than £500,000 over five years even though the Sinn Fein MPs refuse to attend Parliament Alan Duncan the senior Conservative MP who oversees the party’s policy on MPs’ expenses, claimed thousands of pounds for his garden – but stopped after agreeing with the fees office that his expenditure “could be considered excessive”. David Willetts the shadow universities secretary, claimed more than £100 for workmen to replace 25 light bulbs at his home. Oliver Letwin the chairman of the Conservatives’ policy team, claimed more than £2,000 to replace a leaking pipe under a tennis court Michael Gove the shadow education secretary, spent more than £7,000 in five months furnishing a London property in 2006 before “flipping” his second home designation to a new property he bought in Surrey. He then claimed more than £13,000 in stamp duty and other fees from his Parliamentary expenses for this property. Mr Gove’s behaviour surprised colleagues because the former journalist was only elected in 2005 and is close to Mr Cameron. Andrew Lansley the shadow health secretary, spent thousands of pounds renovating a thatched Tudor country cottage shortly before selling it. He redecorated inside and out with premium paint at a cost of £2,000 and re-shingled the driveway. He then “flipped” his expenses to a Georgian flat in London where he claimed for thousands of pounds in furnishings including a Laura Ashley sofa. Francis Maude the shadow minister for the cabinet office, attempted to claim the mortgage interest on his family home in Sussex. This arrangement was rejected by the Fees Office. Two years later, Mr Maude bought a flat in London a few minutes walk from a house he already owned. He then rented out the other property and began claiming on the new flat: the taxpayer has since covered nearly £35,000 in mortgage interest payments. Chris Grayling the shadow home secretary, claimed thousands of pounds to renovate a London flat 17 miles from his family home. Mr Grayling already owned three properties within the M25 but still bought the flat with loans subsidised by the taxpayer. He then claimed for work on the property for up to a year after it was carried out. This enabled him to claim close to the maximum amount allowable under the expenses system during different years. Thresa Villiers Theresa Villiers claimed almost £16,000 in stamp duty and professional fees on expenses when she bought a London flat, even though she already had a house in the capital. She insists she's done nothing wrong. Mrs Villiers said in a statement: “In 2008, I purchased a second home. I then commenced claims for this second home under the ACA. All the claims relate to that second home and are legitimate and within the rules.” Nick Herbert charged taxpayers more than £10,000 for stamp duty and fees when he and his partner bought a home together in his constituency. Cheryl Gillan the shadow Welsh secretary, claimed for dog food on her expenses. Last night, she said that she would repay the money. David Heathcoat-Amory 550 sacks of manure on taxpayer, £6 for the use of a chainsaw, £2 for mouse poison, £1.95 for sunflower seeds, £15 for moving rubbish and £5 for a wheelbarrow puncture. A receipt from October 2005 for “gardening services” showed he had paid for a total of 67-and-a-half hours’ work that month at a cost of £605.25 Between July and September 2007 he claimed £1,792.50 worth of invoices from a gardening firm.
The same gardening firm was paid £2,371.86 for the April to June quarter of 2008. On June 30 2008, the MP employed it for 13.75 hours in one day at a cost of £144.37. Mr Heathcoat-Amory also submitted a £986.17 bill for heating oil in January 2008. An earlier claim for heating oil totalled £858. Douglas Hogg a former Conservative Cabinet minister, included with his expenses claims the cost of having the moat cleared, piano tuned and stable lights fixed at his country manor house. Among the expenditure was nearly £18,000 paid to his gardener, a separate bill of almost £1,000 to have the lawn mowed regularly, and £671.17 for a mole catcher. He also paid £4,488.48 for “machines and fuel,” including a new lawnmower, between £200 and £300 a month for “oil and coal”, insurance costs, phone bills, and thousands of pounds in repairs, including £2,115 to have the moat cleared, and £93.41 for tongs. David Davies the former shadow home secretary, who grew up on a council estate, spent more than £10,000 of taxpayers’ money on home improvements in four years, including a new £5,700 portico at his home in Yorkshire. Mr Davis spent about £5,000 on home furnishings, including £658 to decorate his kitchen and utility room and £640 on a flax carpet for the breakfast room. In 2008-9 he charged £46.33 for changing a lamp in a floodlight at the property. James Arbuthnot claimed from the public finances for cleaning his swimming pool at a country residence. One handwritten invoice for a three-month period, for “grass, strim, pool, fuel” came to £776. Another bill for two months came to £594. The bill for the whole of the 2006-07 financial year for these services was £1,471. Kenneth Clarke the shadow business secretary, managed to avoid paying the full rate of council tax on either of his two homes, by effectively claiming that neither was his main residence. Mr Clarke told the parliamentary authorities that his main home was in his constituency, enabling him to claim a second homes allowance on his London home and have the council tax there paid by the taxpayer. But he told his local council in Nottinghamshire that he spent so little time at his Rushcliffe constituency address that his wife Gillian should qualify for a 25 per cent single person’s discount, saving the former chancellor around £650 per year. Andrew George claimed for £300,000 bolt-hole used by daughter. He claims £847 a month from taxpayers on mortgage interest payments for the riverside flat. But the home insurance policy included on his expense file is in the name of his 21-year-old daughter, Morvah George, a student who has worked as a professional model and as an intern for her father in Parliament. In March 2006, he told the fees office he was planning to lease a flat and then used his second home allowance before securing the lease, claiming back £1,898 spent on furnishings, including a sofa and beds that were in fact delivered to his main home in Cornwall. However, he continued to stay in hotels in the capital and eight months later was sent a letter by Commons officials stating: “I should be grateful if you would let me know whether or not you still intend to lease the flat.” Mr George eventually bought a two-bed flat overlooking the Thames, in a gated block in Rotherhithe, for £308,000 in January 2007 and soon after put in a £3,999 bill for furniture and household items including a television, lamps, blinds, a bed and a futon. This was reduced by £1,488.95 by the fees office, which said: “You have already claimed for a bed in anticipation of your purchase of a second home. You may not claim living costs for anyone other than yourself.” Mr George complained, writing back: “I wanted two beds for the second bedroom when my family come to stay.” He was allowed to claim back the £538 cost of a futon after telling them it was “living room furniture” rather than another bed, and the following month claimed £388.41 for more furniture and homeware. In 2007-08, he billed taxpayers for £1,343.81 in household goods and redecoration including a new bath, although a claim to have the archway between the hallway and lounge removed was rejected. His file shows that the £223.04 annual home insurance policy with the Post Office was taken out solely in the name of his daughter, listed as “Miss M George”. She began studying in London in autumn 2007, just months after her father bought the flat. Sir Menzies Campbell the former leader, hired an interior designer to refurbish his flat in central London, spending nearly £10,000 of taxpayers’ money on scatter cushions, a king-sized bed and a flat screen television. Chris Huhne, the party’s home affairs spokesman, claimed for a £119 trouser press that was delivered to his main home rather than his designated second address. He has agreed to pay back the money. He also claimed for fluffy dusters and the upkeep of his “pergola cross beam”. He owns his second home in his Eastleigh constituency in Hampshire outright but regularly claims for its renovation. In August 2006 he was reimbursed for a £5,066 builder’s invoice that included having two coats of “red rustic timber care” applied to garden items, and two coats of green preservative for fences. On another occasion Mr Huhne submitted a handyman’s bill for £77.31, covering odd jobs such as “replacing rope on swinging chair”. His incidental expenses provision claims, which cover the running costs of his offices in London and in his constituency, include a single receipt for semi-skimmed milk (62p), and others for chocolate HobNobs (79p), tea bags (89p) and a bus ticket (£3.20). Among the items carefully crossed off on the receipts are a cheese muffin (99p), bacon flavour Wheat Crunchies (28p) and Ready Brek (£1.81). One of his most unusual claims is an £85.35 bill for the “mounting, framing and inscription of photo of Chris Huhne”. Lembit Opik, the high-profile housing spokesman, charged taxpayers for a £40 court summons he received for the non-payment of his council tax. He will refund it. Julia Goldsworthy, the Treasury spokesman, bought a leather rocking chair from Heal’s as she spent thousands of pounds just days before the deadline for using the second homes allowance. Nick Clegg the Liberal Democrat leader who has championed the reform of MPs’ expenses, claimed the maximum allowed under his parliamentary second home allowance. Last year, he had his expenses docked after exceeding the £23,083 maximum by more than £100
Within six months of being elected to Parliament in 2005, Mr Clegg bought a house in his constituency and began charging monthly interest repayments of £1,018 on the £279,000 mortgage on his expenses. He also submitted the stamp duty, land registry and legal costs, totalling £9,244.50. Over the following months, he fitted the house with a £2,600 kitchen, and had £5,857.63 worth of decorating done. He claimed for carpets, a laminate floor, tiling and sanding, curtains, blinds, curtain rails and repairs to a garage door. After a shopping spree at IKEA in 2006, he submitted claims for items including cushions costing £4.99, a £2.49 cake pan and £1.50 paper napkins. The following July, Mr Clegg had £680 worth of gardening carried out, including work to “build small wall in rose garden”, followed by £760 for the repair of his garden path. Angus Robertson successfully appealed to the fees office when they turned down his claim for a £400 home cinema system Michael Spicer claimed for work on his helipad and received thousands of pounds for gardening bills. Don Touhig spent thousands of pounds redecorating his constituency home before “flipping” his allowance to a flat in London Steve Webb sold his London flat and bought another nearby, while the taxpayer picked up an £8,400 bill for stamp duty Norman Baker asked if he could claim for a bicycle and a computer so he could listen to music and email family and friends Greg Barker made a £320,000 profit selling a flat the taxpayer had helped pay for Shahid Malik Since being elected in 2005, Mr Malik has claimed the maximum amount allowable for a second home, amounting to £66,827 over three years. Clare Short the former international development secretary, admitted claiming thousand of pounds of taxpayers’ money to which she was not entitled within months of standing down as a Cabinet minister. When she was asked by the House of Commons fees office to repay more than £8,000 to compensate for the overpayments, Miss Short sent a letter back saying officials “should accept some responsibility for the situation” for not spotting the error earlier.Records relating to 2006 also appear to suggest that Miss Short twice submitted an identical bill for £599.14 for decorating and renovation and was paid twice. (She seems a bit dizzy to be in government) Source
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5297606/MPs-expenses-Full-list-of-MPs-investigated-by-the-Telegraph.html For MPs' expenses A-Z with product photos
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5293320/MPs-expenses-A-Z.html ON WWW's CONCLUSION This country is fighting on two war fronts, young men are laying down their lives in an army not properly equipt for war. The greed of bankers have decimated many of our industries, damaged property prices and brought this country into disrepute worldwide and it might never fully recover its standing. This government is removing personal liberties and freedoms like never before and in C-MEC case, removing the right to go to court and now we find that during all of this many of these MP's have been behaving like common thieves, stealing from the tax payer to enhanse their lavish well paid lifestyles. At the next election think carefully about who you elect into office, if they cannot be trusted with an expense account how can they be trusted to run our country? But do please vote, even if it's just to keep one of these greedy selfseving cheats out of office.
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