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Reluctant Hero · Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 8:17 pm Post subject: Prominent MPs Expenses Revealed

It really is obscene.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7329749.stm

MPs' expenses claims are revealed

Commons speaker Michael Martin has released details of top MPs' expenses - including John Prescott's £4,000 food bill and a TV licence for Tony Blair.

All six of the MPs covered in the 2003/04 figures claimed mortgage interest payments on their second homes and five had their council tax paid.

The news follows a three-year Freedom of Information (FOI) battle by the BBC.

There is no suggestion that any of the claims were in breach of rules but they shed further light on MPs' spending.

ADDITIONAL COSTS ALLOWANCES 2003/04
Michael Howard - £20,347
John Prescott - £20,057
Jonathan Sayeed - £18,618
Tony Blair - £15,490
Gordon Brown - £14,304
Charles Kennedy - £12,869
Figures supplied by Commons Commission

Of the six MPs covered by the BBC request, Mr Howard spent the most on "additional costs" - including mortgages, utility bills, council tax, phone bills, cleaning, food and provisions and household repairs, claiming £20,347.

Mr Prescott, deputy prime minister until last year, was next on £20,057, followed by Conservative MP Jonathan Sayeed, who has since stood down, on £18,618.

Arguments

Mr Blair spent £15,490 and Mr Brown £14,304.

Meanwhile, then Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy's £12,869 additional costs claim all went on mortgage interest payments.

Mr Prescott claimed the most on food and groceries of the six covered by the BBC's request - £4,000 - with Mr Blair the only other MP to claim under this category, for £174.41.

Under the rules, MPs can spend up to £400 a month on groceries.

Mr Blair, prime minister from 1997 until last year, had a £116 for TV licence paid.

The figures supplied also include office costs, travel and telephone expenses.

In 2003/04, the maximum amount MPs could claim for on Additional Cost Allowance, for running a second home was £20.902. It is currently £23,083.

The BBC originally made its FOI request in 2005.

But the House of Commons Commission argued that, a detailed breakdown of expenses could expose MPs to a security risk.

However, in January this year the information commissioner ruled that some of the details should be published.

Second request

Following a separate FOI request by campaigner Heather Brooke, the House of Commons Commission has also released details of the second home costs of nine senior politicians from 2005/06.

ADDITIONAL COSTS ALLOWANCES 2005/06
George Osborne - £21,533
Margaret Beckett - £21,415
David Cameron - £21,359
Mark Oaten - £21,178
William Hague - £20,071
Gordon Brown - £18,681
John Prescott - £12,825
Sir Menzies Campbell - £11,611
Tony Blair - £8,398.68
Figures supplied by Commons Commission

Conservative leader David Cameron claimed nearly all of his permitted allowance in mortgage interest/rent payments - £21,293 - and did not claim for other items such as council tax, food, cleaning or repairs, the figures show.

Sir Menzies Campbell, then Lib Dem leader, claimed the most for food of the nine MPs that year - £3,700, with John Prescott claiming just over half the amount he did two years earlier - £2,300.

Ms Brooke faces a High Court battle to get a more detailed receipt by receipt breakdown of the costs after the Commons rejected a request by the information commissioner to release them.

The Commons authorities claim releasing details of travel routes and addresses could compromise MPs' security.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, which campaigns for lower taxes, said: "This is the first step towards real parliamentary transparency, but there is still a long way to go."

But Labour MP Ann Cryer said the pursuit of expenses details by journalists was "becoming a witch hunt" and politicians were "all being tarred with the same brush".

She told BBC Radio 4's The World at One: "We are all assumed to be wrong 'uns."

But Liberal Democrat transport spokesman and anti-sleaze campaigner Norman Baker said: "This is public money we are talking about and we have to be accountable for it."

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Abieuan · Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 9:53 pm Post subject: