More Tory Family Values

February 3, 2008


Quote: A husband-and-wife MP couple have claimed £165,000 in Commons expenses for their £700,000 second home six years after they paid off their mortgage. Tory politicians Sir Nicholas and Ann Winterton switched their fashionable London apartment to a family trust and used their parliamentary allowances to avoid death duty. Using a loophole in Commons rules, they claim more than £30,000 a year in “rent” from the public purse, which is paid to a family trust set up for their two children. Unquote:
The above is the start of a startling article posted on the Evening Standard’s This Is London website.
However one question the London Evening Standard may wish to find an answer to is – why has Tory London Mayoral hopeful Boris Johnson claimed more than £100,000 in Parliamentary Additional Claims Allowance (ACA) over the last six years, when he represents the constituency of Henley, just 50 odd commuting minutes from Paddington by rail?
Whereas the Wintertons have some justification for a second home in London, representing as they do, the relatively distant Cheshire constituencies of Congleton and Macclesfield, it is difficult to understand why Boris needs a taxpayer subsidised second home in London – if, indeed, that is what the money has been claimed for.
So once again we ask: Boris for what have you claimed this £100,000 of taxpayers’ money?
The remainder of the article may be found: here .