.MP Expenses: Parliament 'Being Damaged'
The public's view of MPs has been badly damaged by a series of revelations about expenses claims, a new survey has revealed.
According to the latest allegations, Tourism minister Barbara Follett claimed more than £25,000 for security patrols outside her London home because she did not feel safe there.
It is the latest in a series of damaging revelations about MPs' expenses published by The Daily Telegraph.
And the public are unimpressed, with 89% of those quizzed by ICM for the News of the World warning that the reputation of parliament was being tarnished.
In addition, 91% called for uncensored expenses records to be published in full immediately.
The MPs are ready to fight back, and the most recent disclosures have brought a threat of legal action from immigration minister Phil Woolas.
He has described suggestions that he used parliamentary allowances to buy clothes for his wife, nappies and comics as "disgusting".
For the first time they also involve a senior Tory figure, shadow climate change minister Greg Barker.
The Bexhill and Battle MP - a close ally of David Cameron - is said to have made £320,000 after buying a flat with the help of taxpayers' money and selling it 27 months later.
Exasperated Commons officials have called in Scotland Yard to investigate the leaking of the details of expenses claims.
On Friday Gordon Brown was forced to defend paying thousands of pounds for a cleaner at his London flat to his brother.
The latest Telegraph story focuses heavily on Mrs Follett, who is among the wealthiest MPs in Westminster.
Her husband Ken Follett is a best-selling author who earns £13m a year, according to Forbes magazine.
The Telegraph says Mrs Follett demanded extra protection at her 'second home', a four-storey property in Soho, because she had been mugged and followed by a stalker.
She charged for weekly "mobile security" patrols at the property, upkeep of its CCTV monitors and a burglar alarm system operated by BT, the paper reports.
The total bill for security patrols between 2004 and 2008 was £25,411.64.
A year ago she was asked to justify the expense by the fees office, it added.
She apparently replied the patrols were necessary because she fears for her personal safety.
Mrs Follett told the paper: "As all of (my claims), bar one, have been accepted and cleared by the House of Commons Fees Office under the rules laid out in the Green Book, I have no further comment to make on them."
It has been revealed that Phil Hope, the minister in charge of community care, claimed more than £37,000 in just four years to re-equip a flat.
He also charged the taxpayer £120 for a barbecue - even though Commons rules say that MPs can only claim for the cost of maintaining a garden.
There have also been revelations about Keith Vaz, the chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee.
The ex-Europe minister was said to have bought and furnished a flat in central London with more than £75,000 of public money, despite living just 12 miles away with his wife in a £1.15m property.
Labour backbencher Margaret Moran apparently spent £22,500 of taxpayers' money treating dry rot at her and her husband's seaside house 100 miles from her constituency - days after making it her second home.
Over four years, Ms Moran spent thousands of pounds on three other 'second homes' - in Westminster, Luton and Southampton - renovating each one in turn, according to the Telegraph.
The paper says it will also expose claims by MPs from the other main political parties in the coming days.
MPs fear the drip-drip disclosure of details from more than a million receipts is doing irreparable harm to the reputation of British politics and parliament.
A growing number believe details of all members' expenses should be published now rather than inJuly as planned to stop the leaks.
SkyNews
No wonder they cant afford decent armor for their troops.
According to the latest allegations, Tourism minister Barbara Follett claimed more than £25,000 for security patrols outside her London home because she did not feel safe there.
It is the latest in a series of damaging revelations about MPs' expenses published by The Daily Telegraph.
And the public are unimpressed, with 89% of those quizzed by ICM for the News of the World warning that the reputation of parliament was being tarnished.
In addition, 91% called for uncensored expenses records to be published in full immediately.
The MPs are ready to fight back, and the most recent disclosures have brought a threat of legal action from immigration minister Phil Woolas.
He has described suggestions that he used parliamentary allowances to buy clothes for his wife, nappies and comics as "disgusting".
For the first time they also involve a senior Tory figure, shadow climate change minister Greg Barker.
The Bexhill and Battle MP - a close ally of David Cameron - is said to have made £320,000 after buying a flat with the help of taxpayers' money and selling it 27 months later.
Exasperated Commons officials have called in Scotland Yard to investigate the leaking of the details of expenses claims.
On Friday Gordon Brown was forced to defend paying thousands of pounds for a cleaner at his London flat to his brother.
The latest Telegraph story focuses heavily on Mrs Follett, who is among the wealthiest MPs in Westminster.
Her husband Ken Follett is a best-selling author who earns £13m a year, according to Forbes magazine.
The Telegraph says Mrs Follett demanded extra protection at her 'second home', a four-storey property in Soho, because she had been mugged and followed by a stalker.
She charged for weekly "mobile security" patrols at the property, upkeep of its CCTV monitors and a burglar alarm system operated by BT, the paper reports.
The total bill for security patrols between 2004 and 2008 was £25,411.64.
A year ago she was asked to justify the expense by the fees office, it added.
She apparently replied the patrols were necessary because she fears for her personal safety.
Mrs Follett told the paper: "As all of (my claims), bar one, have been accepted and cleared by the House of Commons Fees Office under the rules laid out in the Green Book, I have no further comment to make on them."
It has been revealed that Phil Hope, the minister in charge of community care, claimed more than £37,000 in just four years to re-equip a flat.
He also charged the taxpayer £120 for a barbecue - even though Commons rules say that MPs can only claim for the cost of maintaining a garden.
There have also been revelations about Keith Vaz, the chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee.
The ex-Europe minister was said to have bought and furnished a flat in central London with more than £75,000 of public money, despite living just 12 miles away with his wife in a £1.15m property.
Labour backbencher Margaret Moran apparently spent £22,500 of taxpayers' money treating dry rot at her and her husband's seaside house 100 miles from her constituency - days after making it her second home.
Over four years, Ms Moran spent thousands of pounds on three other 'second homes' - in Westminster, Luton and Southampton - renovating each one in turn, according to the Telegraph.
The paper says it will also expose claims by MPs from the other main political parties in the coming days.
MPs fear the drip-drip disclosure of details from more than a million receipts is doing irreparable harm to the reputation of British politics and parliament.
A growing number believe details of all members' expenses should be published now rather than inJuly as planned to stop the leaks.
SkyNews
No wonder they cant afford decent armor for their troops.
posted by madtom at 3:59 PM
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