MPs Expenses: 15 worst offenders.
1. Elliot Morley The MP’s claim for tens of thousands of pounds on a mortgage that had
already been paid off was disguised.
The addresses of the properties for which he claimed allowances were blacked out. Letters
from the fees office requesting proof of his mortgage – which eventually prompted him to flip
his allowances to another property – were also removed. The fact that Mr Morley’s ―main
home‖ was a London property being completely rented out to Ian Cawsey, a fellow Labour
MP, was also disguised.
2. David Chaytor
The MP for Bury North’s claims for £13,000 in interest for a ―phantom‖ mortgage and £5,000
to pay his daughter under an assumed name were both hidden.
The five different addresses for which Mr Chaytor claimed second home allowances were
blacked out, meaning the public could not have known he was claiming interest for a non-
existent mortgage. Invoices Mr Chaytor submitted for research done by ―Sarah Rastrick‖ — a
name used by his daughter Sarah Chaytor — were also blacked out.
3. Ben Chapman
Claims by the MP for Wirral South for about £15,000 in interest for a part of his mortgage that
he had already repaid, were covered up.
He was allowed to do this by a fees office staff member. Correspondence detailing the
arrangement, which was sent between Mr Chapman and the fees office, was removed from
his officially released documents. A plan drawn up by Mr Chapman to redistribute after the
arrangement ended — stating that he would be eating out for every meal — was also
removed.
4. Bill Wiggin
Mr Wiggin’s claim of £11,000 in interest for a mortgage that did not exist was not exposed by
the official files.
Details of how Mr Wiggin switched the designation of his second home from London to
Herefordshire, where he had no mortgage — yet continued to claim mortgage interest — is
blacked out in his official files.
In 2007 he switched his expenses back to the London property – a fact also disguised by the
redaction of his claims.
5. The Duck Island
Sir Peter Viggers’s invoice for a £1,645 floating duck island for his garden pond appeared to
have been completely removed from the official version of MPs’ expenses. Sir Peter’s hand-
written claim for ―pond feature £1,645.00‖ on an accompanying form was blacked out. His
second home expenses file for 2006-07 shrank from 105 to 49 pages.
However, his claims for hanging lights on a Christmas tree, and for tons of manure, were not
redacted.
6.The Moat
A 10-page letter from Douglas Hogg to the fees office outlining the annual costs of running his
estate, including £2,115 to have his moat cleared, was removed. The omission of the letter
means that Mr Hogg’s claims for a contribution towards the cost of a ―lady‖ to keep house, a
gardener, a ―mole man‖ and piano tuning would also have remained secret.
7. £41,000-worth of furniture in the small flat
Phil Hope, the Care Services Minister, saw his claims of about £41,000 to furnish a small
south London flat disguised. Among other items, he claimed for a chest of drawers, a
mattress, a television, a sofa, an armchair, a washing machine, three chairs, two bookcases,
one coffee table, a wardrobe and a dining room table. Details of the property Mr Hope was
claiming for, the size of which prompted questions about the extent of his furniture claims,
were censored by parliamentary officials.
8. The demanding justice minister
The protestations of Shahid Malik, the former Justice Minister, over the rejection of some of
his expenses claims, were hidden. In 2006, he claimed £2,600 on a 40in flat-screen television
and DVD home theatre system.
After the fees office questioned the claim, Mr Malik sent a letter arguing that ―natural justice‖
dictated that it should be paid in full. The letter was removed from his files.
The fact that he designated his cheaply rented constituency house as his ―main‖ home —
allowing him to claim thousands for his designated London second home — was also
disguised.
9. Mr and Mrs Expenses
The married MPs Andrew Mackay and Julie Kirkbride would still be flying high following
publication of their censored expenses, because the addresses of their second homes were
blacked out. The uncensored documents show that Mr Mackay claimed mortgage interest
payments for the couple’s joint flat near Westminster — he did not have a ―main‖ home —
and Miss Kirkbride claimed for a home near Redditch.
10. The Second Home By The Sea
The finding that Margaret Moran, the MP for Luton South, ―flipped‖ her second home
designation between London, Luton and Southampton, spending thousands of pounds at
three separate properties, was hidden.
11. Pantyliners and nappies
The redaction of receipts submitted by Phil Woolas, the Immigration Minister, saw items
including pantyliners, nappies and nail polish blacked out.
12. The £1,800 rug from New York
Sir Gerald Kaufman’s invoice for a £1,851 rug from New York was redacted. The receipt,
submitted in March 2007, showed he bought the rug from a Manhattan antiques centre for
$2,750.
13. £15,000 rent for MP’s daughter
Bill Cash, the senior Conservative MP, claimed more than £15,000 in expenses to pay his
daughter rent for her west London flat, even though he owned another home closer to
Westminster. The arrangement was only discovered because the address was known to The
Daily Telegraph. The official expenses did not include the address.
14. The Speaker’s limousine to the job centre
The details of the chauffeur business that Michael Martin, the outgoing Speaker, paid to drive
him around his constituency were blacked out.
He claimed more than £1,400 for chauffeurs to take him to the local job centre and to Celtic
Football Club.
His official files show that, in 2005, he paid for services from a Glasgow company called
Little’s. However, the words ―chauffeur drive‖ in the company logo — and details of what he
was paying for — were blocked.
15. The tourism minister who felt unsafe in London
Barbara Follett, the Tourism Minister, claimed more than £25,000 in expenses for security
patrols at her central London home because she said she did not feel safe there.
However, the claims made by Mrs Follett, the wife of a multi-millionaire author, and the
security company she employed, were not apparent in the official documents.