These are the four:
- Elliott Morley, the former minister and Scunthorpe MP, who claimed £16,000 for a mortgage that had already been paid off. Morley, who has had the Labour whip withdrawn, said that the money had been claimed by mistake and that he had repaid it.
- David Chaytor, the Bury South MP, who claimed nearly £13,000 for a mortgage that had been paid off. Chaytor, who has also had the whip withdrawn, apologised "unreservedly" for what he said had been "an unforgivable error in accounting procedures". He has also arranged to repay the money.
- Margaret Moran, the Luton South MP, who claimed £22,500 to treat dry rot in a home in Southampton, 100 miles from her constituency. Gordon Brown called this "completely unacceptable" and she has agreed to repay the money.
- Ian Gibson, the Norwich North MP, claimed for a flat which was also used by his daughter. He later sold it to her and her partner at a knockdown price. He has offered to stand down at the next election if his constituents want him too.
Each of these people earns in the region of £65,000 a year, which isn't peanuts even in this country. For that money, those of us who vote and give these MPs their jobs are surely entitled to assume that those elected have enough intelligence to be able to figure out what they can and can't claim as a legitimate expense! So with that assumption in mind, how on earth can they expect us to believe them when they are all bleating about how these claims were ALL made by mistake! It's utter bullshit and I really resent them for thinking that I would fall for it!
Let's see if they all get away with just paying back the money, because that's what they all seem to think will be enough to get them off the hook! I'd like to be wrong, but I can't help but believe they are right and that IS all that will happen.
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