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MP Karen Buck |
Teabags and loo signs:
MP reveals expenses
THERE are no swimming pools, moats or manure, metaphorical or otherwise, among Karen Buck’s expenses claims.
Tetley teabags, ladies and gents loo signs and Robinson’s orange squash are the highlights of her reassuringly humble claims.
The West End Extra was invited to sift through five years’ worth of receipts at the MP for Regent’s Park and Kensington North’s constituency office in Queen’s Park this week.
With no second home, there is little room for even a whiff of the impropriety engulfing some of her peers, and the file of receipts is miniscule compared with some of the weighty boxes being hauled around the House of Commons.
The biggest expenses are eaten up by the banality of running a constituency office, with just short of £12,000 spent on rent every year, around £200 a month on stationery and £100 a month to pay her mobile phone bill.
On top of that there is a monthly travelcard, the odd jar of coffee (Ms Buck’s five full-time staff switched from Kenco to Nescafé in 2006), and a mouse mat (£1.99).
The only other major sting was a decorating bill for £2,500 in 2006, which staff say they were obliged to foot some of the cost for under instruction of the local Labour Party which owns the building.
For 2008 Ms Buck’s total staffing costs ran to £98,508, communications to £9,965, and total office costs including rent and service charges to £20,929.64.
“I’m stunned by the behaviour of some of my colleagues,” said Ms Buck. “People shouldn’t profit from politics and it’s clear we need radical changes to the system.”
Meanwhile, over at Mark Field’s office, transparency was not so forthcoming. The chief of staff for the Conservative MP for Cities of London and Westminster, said he “did not expect to have to grant journalists the opportunity to visit Parliament as part of an inquisition”.
Mr Field said he would be happy to “stand by” his expenses if and when the Daily Telegraph publishes them. But it wasn’t a complete information blackout. He published his “communications” expenses, £14,000, “office costs”, £13,540, and annual travel allowance, £990.
Mr Field said: “I have taken this matter extremely seriously over recent years, I have voted against the continuation of the current system and made it clear that the expenses system is wrong and open to misuse. The scandal that has erupted is one that I unfortunately foresaw and I am saddened by the terrible damage that has been done to the standing of Parliament.” |
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