Here Comes Santa Claus
Yet another government minister has come untusck as a result of the MPs' expenses scandal - this time the junior culture minister, Sion Simon.
Over the festive period, The Daily Telegraph reported that Mr Simon secretly paid more than £40,000 in taxpayer-funded expenses to his sister. Here are some extracts from the article which can be read on-line at: www.telegraph.co.uk
Mr Simon told parliamentary officials that a rented north London property was his “second home” for expenses purposes - but it was owned by the his sister, Ceri Erskine, a management consultant.
MPs have been explicitly banned since April 2006 from renting properties from family members at taxpayers’ expense and the practice is considered to have been unacceptable since 2004. However, Mr Simon continued to make improper claims of £1,000 a month until 2008.
After being confronted by The Daily Telegraph, Mr Simon claimed that he had inadvertently broken the rules and agreed to repay £21,000, one of the biggest repayments made by a minister during the expenses scandal. He apologised “unreservedly”.
His admission cast doubt on the rigour of Sir Thomas Legg’s audit of expense claims made by every MP since 2004. Sir Thomas was understood to have failed to uncover Mr Simon’s questionable claims.
It will also be embarrassing for Gordon Brown because Downing Street thought that the worst abuses of the expenses system by Labour MPs had been identified already.
Between 2004 and 2008, Mr Simon claimed £81,000 in allowances for the flat, including £44,000 in rent and another £37,000 to pay for household bills and food. Overlooking Regent’s Park, the property is in one of London’s most expensive areas.
In contrast, Mr Simon’s “main home”, which he funds, is a modest £135,000 terrace house in his Birmingham constituency.
Mortgage interest payments on the house are likely to have been substantially less than his rent claims. From April 2004, Mr Simon claimed £1,000 a month in rent for his sister’s London flat. She lives with her husband in Hampshire.
He also claimed £150 a month for cleaning, £100 a month for council tax, £50 a month for telephone bills and the maximum £400 a month for groceries, as well as up to £250 a month for other utility bills.
Most MPs submitted copies of mortgage or rent agreements and invoices to support their claims. But Mr Simon’s expenses files suggest he did not submit a single receipt for any living cost at the flat after April 2004, when records began.
Mr Simon is expected to face calls to repay more than the £21,000 he agreed to hand back last night.
Sir Thomas has demanded that other MPs repay money that they paid to family members since 2004. Bernard Jenkin, a Conservative backbencher, was told to repay £63,000 because he rented his Essex constituency home from his sister-in-law, despite insisting that he had special permission to continue doing so.
Mr Simon, 40, a former journalist and Labour Party official, was elected in 2001. He was made a junior higher education minister by Mr Brown in October 2008 and moved to the Culture Department as creative industries minister in June.
Mr Simon moved into his sister’s flat after separating from his wife, Elizabeth, in 2003. He had previously lived with her and their three children in a house in Camden. Last year, he moved out of his sister’s flat and bought a flat in Camden for £325,000 and designated this as his “second home”. This allowed him to claim £5,400 towards its stamp duty bill and thousands of pounds to renovate and furnish the property.
The MP’s latest file shows that as recently as May 28, Mr Simon was contesting a challenge to his latest £695 maintenance works claim.
Earlier this year he also attempted to claim a £25-a-night subsistence allowance 16 times for a 13-night period, before being corrected.
Mr Simon said yesterday that the payment of rent to his sister was the subject of a “formal written agreement” with the Commons in 2003 and the level of rent was set according to “independent advice”. “Until today, I had no notion that the rules had changed in April 2006 to exclude the rental of property from family members,” he said.
“At all times I have acted wholly transparently and in good faith.” He insisted that his other claims were “validly incurred”.
Over the festive period, The Daily Telegraph reported that Mr Simon secretly paid more than £40,000 in taxpayer-funded expenses to his sister. Here are some extracts from the article which can be read on-line at: www.telegraph.co.uk
Mr Simon told parliamentary officials that a rented north London property was his “second home” for expenses purposes - but it was owned by the his sister, Ceri Erskine, a management consultant.
MPs have been explicitly banned since April 2006 from renting properties from family members at taxpayers’ expense and the practice is considered to have been unacceptable since 2004. However, Mr Simon continued to make improper claims of £1,000 a month until 2008.
After being confronted by The Daily Telegraph, Mr Simon claimed that he had inadvertently broken the rules and agreed to repay £21,000, one of the biggest repayments made by a minister during the expenses scandal. He apologised “unreservedly”.
His admission cast doubt on the rigour of Sir Thomas Legg’s audit of expense claims made by every MP since 2004. Sir Thomas was understood to have failed to uncover Mr Simon’s questionable claims.
It will also be embarrassing for Gordon Brown because Downing Street thought that the worst abuses of the expenses system by Labour MPs had been identified already.
Between 2004 and 2008, Mr Simon claimed £81,000 in allowances for the flat, including £44,000 in rent and another £37,000 to pay for household bills and food. Overlooking Regent’s Park, the property is in one of London’s most expensive areas.
In contrast, Mr Simon’s “main home”, which he funds, is a modest £135,000 terrace house in his Birmingham constituency.
Mortgage interest payments on the house are likely to have been substantially less than his rent claims. From April 2004, Mr Simon claimed £1,000 a month in rent for his sister’s London flat. She lives with her husband in Hampshire.
He also claimed £150 a month for cleaning, £100 a month for council tax, £50 a month for telephone bills and the maximum £400 a month for groceries, as well as up to £250 a month for other utility bills.
Most MPs submitted copies of mortgage or rent agreements and invoices to support their claims. But Mr Simon’s expenses files suggest he did not submit a single receipt for any living cost at the flat after April 2004, when records began.
Mr Simon is expected to face calls to repay more than the £21,000 he agreed to hand back last night.
Sir Thomas has demanded that other MPs repay money that they paid to family members since 2004. Bernard Jenkin, a Conservative backbencher, was told to repay £63,000 because he rented his Essex constituency home from his sister-in-law, despite insisting that he had special permission to continue doing so.
Mr Simon, 40, a former journalist and Labour Party official, was elected in 2001. He was made a junior higher education minister by Mr Brown in October 2008 and moved to the Culture Department as creative industries minister in June.
Mr Simon moved into his sister’s flat after separating from his wife, Elizabeth, in 2003. He had previously lived with her and their three children in a house in Camden. Last year, he moved out of his sister’s flat and bought a flat in Camden for £325,000 and designated this as his “second home”. This allowed him to claim £5,400 towards its stamp duty bill and thousands of pounds to renovate and furnish the property.
The MP’s latest file shows that as recently as May 28, Mr Simon was contesting a challenge to his latest £695 maintenance works claim.
Earlier this year he also attempted to claim a £25-a-night subsistence allowance 16 times for a 13-night period, before being corrected.
Mr Simon said yesterday that the payment of rent to his sister was the subject of a “formal written agreement” with the Commons in 2003 and the level of rent was set according to “independent advice”. “Until today, I had no notion that the rules had changed in April 2006 to exclude the rental of property from family members,” he said.
“At all times I have acted wholly transparently and in good faith.” He insisted that his other claims were “validly incurred”.
