acrobat74
Trustworthy Freedom Fighter
Joined: 03 Jun 2007
Posts: 836
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 Posted: Sun May 03, 2009 1:02 pm Post subject: Peer claims £100k expenses on empty flat |
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6211846.ece
| Quote: | Labour peer Baroness Uddin claims £100,000 expenses on empty flat
The baroness, who became Britain?s first Muslim woman peer in 1998, has lived with her family in a house in Wapping, east London, since the early 1990s
A LABOUR peer who lives in the East End of London has claimed about £100,000 in parliamentary expenses on a flat in Kent that neighbours say has been unoccupied for years.
Baroness Uddin, who worked closely with Tony and Cherie Blair, has been claiming allowances intended for peers living outside London although she resides only four miles from the Lords.
Inquiries by The Sunday Times have established that the baroness bought a two-bedroom flat in Maidstone in 2005 and has named it as her main home to claim almost £30,000 a year in accommodation expenses from the House of Lords.
Residents from the five other flats in the same block as Uddin’s property all say they have never seen her there. They could see through the windows that the bedrooms were unfurnished.
Yvonne Adams, who has lived next to the flat for three years, said: “I can’t emphasise enough how no one has lived there. They just haven’t. I know that for a fact.”
Adams said she went on to her rear balcony every day and had never seen anyone on the balcony next door. Until recently, there were piles of leaves on the balcony and sheets over the bedroom windows had fallen down. “There has never been a stick of furniture in there,” she said.
Last weekend, hours after The Sunday Times had challenged Uddin about her “main residence”, the baroness’s BMW 4x4 car was spotted at the Maidstone flat and members of her family arrived.
A plumber who went into the flat to help the family with a broken boiler said: “It looked like they were just moving in. They told me they were just moving in.” By Sunday night, curtains covered the windows, a light was on in the hall and a mat was placed outside the front door.
The Sunday Times has also challenged Uddin about a further £83,000 worth of expense claims she made before she bought the Maidstone flat in September 2005.
She has claimed that her main residence has been outside the capital since 2001 but refuses to say where, despite repeated questions.
Last night Angus Robertson, the leader in Westminster of the Scottish National party, which has campaigned for stricter controls on expenses, said he wanted two inquiries into the baroness’s expense claims. “I will be writing to the police and the House of Lords authorities asking them to investigate this report,” he said.
Lord Oakeshott, the Liberal Democrat frontbencher, said: “An empty property can’t be a peer’s main residence. The Lords authorities must check the facts of this case and investigate.”
Insisting she had done nothing wrong, Uddin said: “Should the House of Lords authorities wish to investigate the matter I will, of course, cooperate fully.” She said she stayed at the flat “regularly” and that it had furniture.
Yesterday she appeared at the flat but refused to prove it was furnished by showing a reporter around. “I’m telling you it is. You'll just have to accept that,” she said.
The baroness, who became Britain’s first Muslim woman peer in 1998, has lived with her family in a house in Wapping, east London, since the early 1990s. Neighbours there say they regularly see her. By contrast, none of the residents of the Maidstone apartment block could remember seeing her.
The occupiers of apartments directly above and below the flat said they had always believed it was empty. |
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Summary of 9/11 scepticism: http://tinyurl.com/27ngaw6 and www.911summary.com
Off the TV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4szU19bQVE
Those who do not think that employment is systemic slavery are either blind or employed. (Nassim Taleb)
www.moneyasdebt.net
http://www.positivemoney.org.uk/ |
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acrobat74
Trustworthy Freedom Fighter
Joined: 03 Jun 2007
Posts: 836
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| Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 10:51 am Post subject: |
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One of the biggest and most spacious gravy trains is of course...the government.
Apart from the revolving doors between corporates and government, there are also other perks to the job.
Of course the timing of the latest revelations is most likely not random. Discrediting the political class could be the objective of other power circles. The problem is that pulling it off is so easy.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/09/mps-expenses-leak-teleg raph-police-government
More ministers dragged into expenses row as fresh leaks embarrass Commons
• Fees office called Barbara Follett's £25,000 claim 'excessive'
• Immigration minister Phil Woolas may sue Daily Telegraph
* Nicholas Watt and Patrick Wintour
* guardian.co.uk, Saturday 9 May 2009 09.53 BST
* Article history
Barbara Follett, Minister for Culture, Creative Industries and Tourism
Barbara Follett, the tourism minister, claimed more than £25,000 for security patrols outside her home in Soho. Photograph: Linda Nylind/Guardian
Gordon Brown will today experience more agony over parliamentary expenses after five ministers and a series of senior Labour MPs were forced to defend embarrassing details about their claims.
As parliamentary authorites called in the police to examine how the expenses details of 13 cabinet ministers were leaked to the Daily Telegraph yesterday, a second round on ministers were last night thrown on the defensive over their claims.
Barbara Follett, the wife of the millionaire bestselling novelist Ken Follett, was the most high-profile minister named by the Daily Telegraph today.
The tourism minister claimed more than £25,000 for security patrols outside her home in Soho. Follett, who said she did not feel safe after she was mugged and fiollowed by a stalker, claimed £25,411.64 for the security between 2004 and 2008. The Commons fees office said her claims could appear "excessive", but still paid.
The revelations today came as police were formally called in to investigate the leaks, raising the prospect of a full-scale criminal inquiry. One MP implicated in the latest allegations told the Guardian he believed a mole was still active yesterday, operating inside parliament and feeding material to the Daily Telegraph.
Others said the paper was guilty of trading in stolen property, and could be subject to a court fine running into millions.
Sir Stuart Bell, a memeber of the Commons estimates committee, claimed that there had been a breach of the Data Protection Act.
Downing Street believes the police investigation could backfire because of what is seen as greed and fraud by MPs.
Last night it emerged the employment minister, Tony McNulty, could face a police investigation after a complaint was made about expenses he had been claiming under the second homes allowance. In March, it emerged that McNulty had claimed about £60,000 from Commons allowances since 2002, towards maintaining a house where his parents lived.
The Telegraph today focuses on five middle-ranking ministers outside the cabinet who, in addition to Follett, are:
• Phil Hope, the health minister, who spent more than £37,000 on refurbishing and furnishing what was described as a modest two-bedroom flat in south London. Hoep said last night he made a mistake in wrongly claiming for a razor.
• Ben Bradshaw, another health minister, who reportedly changed the designation of his second hime to a property he shares with his partner in west London. The couple initially split the mortgage costs, but Bradshaw now claims the entire interest bill on the property.
• Phil Woolas, the immigration minister, who was last night considering suing the Telegraph after it said he claimed for women's clothing, tampons and nappies. He described the allegation as "disgusting" and said the paper wrongly assumed the receipts were his expense claims. In fact, he regularly submitted full receipts and claimed for less. "I am a victim of too much honesty in putting in the full receipts," he said. Woolas did claim for a kettle in 2006.
• Vera Baird, the solicitor general, tried unsuccesfully to claim for a Christmas tree and baubles.
Other senior Labour figures named today include:
• Keith Vaz, the chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, who reportedly claimed £72,000 towards the cost of buying and furnishing a flat in central London. Vaz lives 12 miles away with his wife in a £1.15m property.
• Margaret Moran, the MP for Luton South, who reportedly spent £22,500 treating dry rot at her seaside home 100 miles from her constituency a few days after designating it as her second home.
Over a period of four years Moran spent thousands on three different properties as she changed her designated second home between properties in Westminster, Luton and Southampton. The fees office raised concerns that her dry rot claim appeared to be "against the spirit of the guidelines", but it sanctioned the payment because "there was nothing ... we could pull the claim on".
A Tory shadow minister is also named today. Greg Barker, the shadow climate change minister and a close ally of David Cameron, reportedly used his allowance to help him buy a £320,000 flat and sold it after only 27 months.
Labour MPs believe a mole may be feeding sensitive personal information to the Daily Telegraph. One MP raised his concerns with the Commons authorities, which helps explain why the police were called in to investigate. The MP acted after his office raised a series of questions with the fees office about expenses claims dating back to 2004. Within an hour of this conversation, the MP's staff were contacted by the Telegraph, which then asked questions covering exactly the same area. The MP told the Guardian: "It was uncanny. There is something horrible going on. I have never been so frightened. What is happening is disgusting."
The Commons members estimates committee will meet on Monday to decide how to respond to the leak and the serious damage being done to the reputation of parliament. It is certain to bring forward publication of the last five years of claims from the planned date in July.
A series of ministers took to the airwaves yesterday to defend their conduct. Brown insisted he had been trying to reform the expenses rules and admitted that the system "doesn't work".
The allegations against the cabinet ranged from the bizarre to what looked like a systematic attempt to bend the rules for personal gain. They included:
• Gordon Brown, who paid his brother, Andrew, £6,577 over 26 months between 2004 and 2006 for cleaning services at his London flat.
• Jack Straw, the justice secretary, who claimed for the full rate of council tax on his home in his Blackburn constituency, despite receiving a 50% discount from his local authority. Straw discovered the mistake and paid back the money.
A series of ministers - Hazel Blears, Geoff Hoon and Alistair Darling - changed the status of their London and constituency homes, prompting claims that they were attempting to maximise their claims under the additional costs allowance, which is used to subsidise second homes. Blears made claims on three properties in the space of one year.
David Cameron, bracing himself for revelations about his own party, said every MP would have to explain themselves to their constituents. He said: "I completely understand how angry the public are about this and we desperately need change.
"We've got to radically reduce the number of things that MPs can claim for such as barbeques and patio heaters," he said.
The Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, said the issue "affects all politicians of all parties and no one comes out of this smelling of roses".
The speaker, Michael Martin, will make a Commons statement on Monday. It is thought that only 120 MPs have so far examined their "raw" receipts and could go ahead with publication straight away.
The MPs who have still not examined their expenses fully may be given another week before pressing ahead with publication.
The fees office set up a weekend hotline to advise panic-stricken MPs who are worried about how their claims covering the five years back to 2004 will look to their constituents.
_________________
Summary of 9/11 scepticism: http://tinyurl.com/27ngaw6 and www.911summary.com
Off the TV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4szU19bQVE
Those who do not think that employment is systemic slavery are either blind or employed. (Nassim Taleb)
www.moneyasdebt.net
http://www.positivemoney.org.uk/ |
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