April 8, 2009

The shocking revelations of how Tory, Labour and Lib-Dem members of parliament have grossly abused their positions of trust to make the taxpayers pay up for food, housing and other expenses just gets worse and worse.

The latest revelations include:

- Prime Minister Gordon Brown has claimed more than £100,000 in second-home allowances despite having two grace-and-favour properties. House of Commons figures show that Mr Brown has claimed a total of £116,234 in the Additional Cost Allowance for running a second home since 2001. The cash was for a flat in Westminster, even though Mr Brown has lived in accommodation in Downing Street since 1997.

- Chancellor Alistair Darling claimed money for his Edinburgh home and renting out his London flat while living in 11 Downing Street rent-free.

- Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, already exposed for claiming porn films on the taxpayer, is now under scrutiny for claiming £116,000 for her constituency house in Worcestershire.

- Tory MP for Hertsmere, Herts, James Clappison claimed almost £100,000 of taxpayers’ cash for a second home while building up a property empire. Mr Clappison owns 22 houses which he rents out yet has pocketed £97,892 in Commons allowances intended to pay for a second home.

- Labour Housing Minister Margaret Beckett claimed a second home allowance while living in a grace-and-favour apartment and collecting rent from another property.

- The Speaker of the House of Commons, Labour MP for Glasgow North East, Michael Martin, has been exposed as claiming more than £150,000 for holidays courtesy of the taxpayer. Mr Martin and his wife have holidayed in Hawaii, the Bahamas, New York and Rome - all courtesy of the state. On every trip except one Mr Martin travelled first class or business class.

Mr Martin also claimed £4,000 in taxi bills run up by his wife.

To add insult to injury, when the thousands of free “air miles” accumulated as a result of his travels was credited to him, Mr Martin then handed these free air tickets out to members of his family.

- All members of parliament voted for a five percent limit on price rises in the taxpayer-subsidised bars, restaurants and cafeterias of Westminster. This means that they will avoid the price hikes of up to eighteen percent faced by the public in supermarkets and other stores across the country. Taxpayers will be forced to pay an extra £5 million a year to bankroll the exclusive food and drink for the MPs.

MPs already enjoy heavily subsidised food and drink prices — a cup of tea costs 30p, a breakfast about £2.10 and a pint of lager is about £1 cheaper than in nearby pubs. They are also able to claim up to £400 a month for groceries.

- Backbench MPs from all parties spent more than £1.4 million on “fact-finding” visits to exotic destinations. Locations for these “inquiries” by House of Commons select committees included Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Shanghai, New York, Sydney and Barcelona.

Accommodation in five-star hotels, first-class flights and a daily cash allowance for “extras” are all provided from Treasury funds.

And despite the recession, MPs have already booked overseas jaunts costing more than £1 million in total for the year ahead. Trips already pencilled in include the Work and Pensions Committee going to Canada to look at “pensioner poverty” at a cost of up to £55,083.

The Justice Committee will head to South Africa — at a cost of £48,051 — to study “the role of a prison officer.”

- The Westminster expenses bill is already nearly £100 million a year, and at least 130 MPs have second homes which they rent out while claiming housing allowances.

- The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, John Lyon, confirmed he was investigating another Labour MP over an allowance claimed for a second home in London after a complaint was lodged by BNP spokesman on police matters, Mr Michael Barnbrook.

Mr Lyon has started an enquiry into Leyton and Wanstead MP Harry Cohen who claims costs for his east London home because he lists a house 70 miles away in Colchester, Essex as his main residence.

Mr Lyon is also investigating a complaint about Labour minister Tony McNulty, who claimed thousands of pounds in allowances for the house in which his parents live in his Harrow East constituency.

British taxpayers who are sick and tired of these parasites sucking the very life blood out of this nation while simultaneously destroying it through mass immigration, Islamification, subservience to the EU and gross economic incompetence, can vote BNP on June 4.