Stung by the continuing scandal of MPs' expenses highlighted by the porn videos paid for by the public purse in the home secretary's entry, the speaker of the House of Commons has released ALL MPs' expenses for the last two years. We now know that the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith claimed £22,948 in 2007/8, which even my abysmal maths tells me is just £135 short of the maximum £23,083 that MPs are allowed to claim in second home allowances per year.
We and others, I'm sure, are now trawling through the detail to see what others titbits await, though the kind of detail we've already seen for the home secretary is not yet available for all her parliamentary colleagues.
There's much talk tonight of who leaked the details of Ms Smith's expenses, prompting her to pay them back. But the PM is sticking by her, despite the attention this has drawn to her decision to claim a second home allowance on the place where her husband and family spend much of their time whilst she lodges with her sister in London in their "main home".
As if that wasn't enough, Ms Smith and other ministers will have their pay frozen this year. Opposition parties have followed suit.
This is the latest Snow blog from Channel 4
The residents of Cardboard City will be well impressed!
ReplyDelete