MPs will be able to hide their expenses

MPs who are suspected of fiddling expenses will receive special protection under the law, it has been revealed.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority wants to withhold the names of those under investigation to save them from ‘reputational damage’. It also wants to raise MPs’ pay by 10 per cent and bar the public from hearings.

While everyone else in the country will be subjected to increased surveillance and government scrutiny, and those on disability and housing benefits will be subject to further cuts and crackdowns, MPs will be able to evade detection for helping themselves liberally to taxpayers money.

Only a fortnight ago it emerged that MPs are pocketing even more in expenses now than they ever did under the old rules, before they got exposed.
Last year they grabbed £103 million in allowances against £102 million in 2008.

In 2009, many MPs were found to have abused taxpayers’ money by claiming expenses. One of those expenses, was submitted by Douglas Hogg’s, former minister of agriculture who employed a full-time gardener and “lady,” on a salary of £14,000 a year to keep his house clean.

Among the MP’s claims on the house in Lincolnshire, which includes a lodge and outhouses and on which he had no mortgage, were bills for a “mole man”, the cost of running his housekeeper’s car and a £31 call-out to have bees removed.

His shopping list was so extensive, that in 2004 he negotiated a special deal with the Commons fees office, which for several years automatically paid him a 12th of the annual allowance each month. He also sent a 10-page letter detailing the costs of running his estate over the previous three years.

He claimed £18000 to employ a gardener, a separate bill of almost £1,000 to have the lawn mowed regularly, and £671.17 for a mole catcher.

He also tried to claim for piano tuning, car maintenance costs and other expenditure associated with his estate.

Then you have other MPs such as Sir Peter Viggers claiming £1,600 for a floating duck house, while others such as Jacqui Smith had partners which submitted receipts for porn subscriptions.

Ian Duncan Smith, the man who wants the poor and disabled in the UK to be forced to use food stamps instead of receiving money, once famously claimed expenses for his underwear.

He also claimed for his laundry, haircuts and his mirror.

A petition is currently circulating on 38 Degrees to demand more transparency.

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