MPs' Expenses - The Next Chapter
According to today's news reports, the MPs' expenses scandal is set to rumble on for weeks and months to come.
The latest development is that as many as 325 MPs (over half the total number) will receive letters this week - following an independent enquiry - which has looked back over their expenses claims for the past five years.
Many are expected to have to repay expenses that have been wrongly claimed - or to be asked to provide further to justify their claims.
But even before the spotlight focuses once more on MPs in the House of Commons - the behaviour of another 'honourable' member from the House of Lords has been exposed by the Sunday Times.
Here's an extract from today's paper - the full article can be read on-line at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
"A multi-millionaire ally of Gordon Brown pretended that a small flat occupied by one of his employees was his main home so he could claim £38,000 in expenses from the Lords.
Lord Paul, one of Labour’s biggest donors and a friend of the prime minister, has admitted he never even slept in the flat, despite stating it was his main residence.
The one-bedroom flat was occupied by a manager from one of Paul’s hotels who confirmed last week that the peer had never lived there while claiming the expenses.
Paul, who has a family fortune of £500m, was actually based in London, where he has lived for more than 40 years."
According to the Sunday Times, Lord Paul was able to claim cash allowances - which are normally only available to peers who live in London - by saying his main home was his manager’s flat in Oxfordshire.
The latest development is that as many as 325 MPs (over half the total number) will receive letters this week - following an independent enquiry - which has looked back over their expenses claims for the past five years.
Many are expected to have to repay expenses that have been wrongly claimed - or to be asked to provide further to justify their claims.
But even before the spotlight focuses once more on MPs in the House of Commons - the behaviour of another 'honourable' member from the House of Lords has been exposed by the Sunday Times.
Here's an extract from today's paper - the full article can be read on-line at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
"A multi-millionaire ally of Gordon Brown pretended that a small flat occupied by one of his employees was his main home so he could claim £38,000 in expenses from the Lords.
Lord Paul, one of Labour’s biggest donors and a friend of the prime minister, has admitted he never even slept in the flat, despite stating it was his main residence.
The one-bedroom flat was occupied by a manager from one of Paul’s hotels who confirmed last week that the peer had never lived there while claiming the expenses.
Paul, who has a family fortune of £500m, was actually based in London, where he has lived for more than 40 years."
According to the Sunday Times, Lord Paul was able to claim cash allowances - which are normally only available to peers who live in London - by saying his main home was his manager’s flat in Oxfordshire.
