The UK Expenses scandal

New Zealand MPs and officials should be very thankful that we do not have the British system of expense claims for MPs, which has led to hugely damaging publicity over some of their more venal claims, which I will outline below.

In NZ, the system is based on a set allowance for personal expenses and a Wellington accommodation maximum expense which can only be used for rent, hotel rooms or mortgage interest up to around $480 a week.

In the UK they can designate a second home, and use taxpayer money to pay for expenses associated with it – not just rent but also utility bills, furniture, electrical goods, refurbishments and food. This has led to huge rorts, as has been revealed by bloggers and the media. Many of the worst offenders are Cabinet Ministers and UK Labour’s popularity is dropping even further to mid 20s.

What are some of the rorts. The Telegraph has a whole section on them.

• Former environment secretary John Gummer claimed 9000 pounds for gardening expenses including getting rid of moles.
• Conservative MP Alan Duncan claiming 16 hours a week of gardening expenses for a one acre property
• Gordon Brown changing his second home from London to Scotland just before he became PM, so he got maximum benefit.
• The Chancellor has changed his official second home four times, allowing him to claim stamp duty each time on each new purchase

And there are scores more. Even worse for the MPs, the details are being leaked to media, ahead of the planned public disclosure which would have details such as how many houses have been claimed for.

You can not under-estimate the disgust the public has for these revelations. One contact over there e-mails to say:

The Telegraph ran about nine full pages starting page one and then running on every consecutive page the day they broke the story. Today their Sunday edition would have devoted at least that much again I’d say and all the other papers are devoting about a quarter of that much space to it themselves.

There’s been a trickle of stuff on Tory MP’s rorting the system too but nothing like Brown’s crowd.  But, the way David Cameron replied to a BBC reporter when the story broke was interesting.  I suspect there may be some skeletons to come out of his party’s cupboards too but it is not going to damage them to anything like the disgust the man on the Clapham bus feels for Labour MP’s here at the moment.   Unless Brown can find a war somewhere,  I reckon his party could come third to the Lib Dems come election time.

The Telegraph has said they are about to focus on the Shadow Cabinet, and some of their rorts will have been as bad. But it is a reality the Government always ends up wearing more of the blame, and it is going to be a torrid time for Gordon Brown.