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MP expenses – what did they buy?
Friday 19th June 2009, 10:00PM BST.
Owen Paterson
Conservative MP for North Shropshire
Additional costs allowance for 2005/06 – £21,560.
Mr Paterson’s highest claims under his additional costs allowance were mortgage repayments on his second home in London which ranged from £1,041 to £1,657.
He also made claims for monthly council tax payments of £65 and expenses to cover the service charge on the property of £510.
Claims of £100 were also made to cover the cost of cleaning the London property.
Incidental expenses claimed included:
Incidental expenses cost Mr Paterson more than £30,000 in 2005/06 and a big chunk of that was to pay for office support. A bill of £3,671 was submitted to cover the cost of hiring the Parliamentary Resource Unit to help the MP with his research and office work.
An invoice was submitted for £1,794 for payment to computer firm Haecceitas for the secure management of Mr Paterson’s website.
Among his expenses are several relating to computers including a bill to Evolution Electronics who helped him transfer information from an electronic device to his Blackberry mobile phone. A Dell inkjet printer cost £202.
He also claimed £10.50 for the hire of a room at Whitchurch Civic Centre to hold a surgery.
Additional costs allowance for 2006/07 – £23,857.
Mr Paterson’s claims included mortgage repayments on his second home in London of £1,236 per month.
Other monthly costs Mr Paterson claimed included council tax of £132 and the cost of cleaning the property of £120 per month.Utilities bills of about £50 were claimed and Mr Paterson also claimed food bills from £110 to £210.
In May 2006, he claimed for repairs to his second home. The invoice for £340 was for an engineer to drain hot and cold water services.
The existing bath taps were replaced and the water system was refilled and tested. Mr Paterson also claimed £245 for repairs to the heating system.
Incidental expenses claims included:
Among incidental expenses amounting to more than £31,000 in 2006/07 were claims for newspapers, phones and office equipment.
He bought a new broadband router and Microsoft pack at a cost of £277. Other hi-tech gear included a memory stick from Currys, which cost £29.99, and a £391 printer.
Mr Paterson’s biggest expense was for research and office support. One invoice to the Parliamentary Resources Unit was £3,877.
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thank you mr wright,for being too busy spending money on yourself.
than to delogate anything for the regeneration of sutton hill.
letting it turn into a chav filled hovel of derolect & neglected burnt out & vandalised houses with boarded up windows.
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£400 per month on food ?
I wish I could spend half of that to feed our family of 4. We have to live on ‘Own brand value’ lines to survive each month, and I am in full time employment, how I would love to treat my family to ‘proper food’ rather than cheap and nasty ‘offcuts’ from the food chain.
MP’s have just no idea how we mere mortals lead an existence rather than a life.
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Well let’s not be too hard on Lembit on this occasion. I mean, he has said that the wigs (wigs?!) were purchased in connection with charity events. And who are we to argue eh?
I’m sure that a large number of people will laughingly and fondly recall the times that Lembit turned up at their charity events with his wigs, purchased of course with their money.
Well, they *will* recall that – won’t they???
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A tanker load of black ink?
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With several years to prepare for this, attempts to block it, the threat of police and legal action for the person who leaked it to the Telegraph and an endless supply of black ink it still looks terrible – just how do they think this looks to the rest of us? What does Daniel Kawczynski buy with his £250 per month petty cash? What has happened to the furniture he bought for his flat that he now no longer needs for his ‘club’?
The whole system needs a root and branch clear out
Reduce the number of MP’s – 450 would be plenty.(Every body else – public and private sector are slashing their workforce)
Second homes out of Central London – if they had to commute they may do something about transport – public and private.
Constituency offices and staff to be run independently of their family/friends and political party
Travel claims to be paid for public transport only
All incidental expenses to be backed by a receipt
The presumption of complete disclosure of expenses and costs (except financial account details) – any other ‘redacting’ to be done an an exceptional basis.
The presentation of a quarterly performance report to an independent constituency ‘board’ or ‘jury’ about their effectiveness as an MP and their costs and expenses.
The few MP’s who have come out of this mess with some degree of integrity would be able to comply immediately, the others would soon learn that this is the type of world the rest of us have to work in, but the first thing is for those MP’s who claim ‘innocence’ is to call for the immediate removal from power of those who are guilty. How do they expect the public to pay their taxes and obey the law if the institute that sets taxes and makes laws is so universally held in contempt.
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Don’t be fooled by the token gesture of sudden ‘interest’ by Knacker of The Yard. One or two slapped wrists might come from it but the Masonic Lodges and the old school tie networks will mitigate any real action. Basically nothing will happen.
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bigbeast you have hit the nail on the head.
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The worst for me are Daniel Kawczynski’s £400 leather bed, David Wright’s £65 razor, Mark Pritchard’s £908 on London taxis and Mrs Pritchard’s £30 chair cushion for her bad back.
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Lets face they have milked the system to the nth degree and now they are pretending to be open and honest but in reality they do not give a damn.
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