MPs accused in expenses secrecy and cover up’s as if we didn’t know?

MPs that backed a bill that would have blocked public release of parliamentary expense claims under the freedom of information act; are among the latest accused of thieving from English tax payers.

Tory MP David Maclean, who led the secrecy bid, rejected St Michael’s and the Sunday Telegraph claims he used public money to renovate a house and avoid capital gains tax.

Labour MPs David Clelland and Fraser Kemp and Tories Julian Lewis and David Ruffley are also accused of thieving tax payer’s cash.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has vowed to stamp out "unacceptable behaviour" has no room to talk as he’s just as bent but had a slightly better accountant?

The latest in a string of allegations published by St Michael’s and the Telegraph Media Group which focuses on MPs who backed an unsuccessful bill, introduced by Mr Maclean, to exempt MPs from the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act so they could hide their bent dealings.

 

St Michael’s and the newspaper claims that after using £20,000 of taxpayer's money to renovate a property before selling it, Mr Maclean, who represents Penarth and The Border, avoided paying capital gains tax on the sale by telling the taxman it was his main home.

But in a statement issued to the BBC, the MP said he utterly refuted the allegation. He said that when he became opposition chief whip he was told it was compulsory to make London his main home how the lies just roll out of the holes they have in their faces.

(.Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins. For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. 'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’ Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarrelling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter — when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I)

He went on to say; "I have never 'flipped' my property or sought to refurbish it at taxpayer’s expense," he said.

Meanwhile, Tyne Bridge MP David Clelland "bought out" his partner's share of a joint mortgage on a flat in London at a cost of thousands of pounds to the tax payer’s in higher claims for interest payments as well as legal fees.

'Nothing illegal' isn’t that what criminals say?

The Telegraph backs St Michael’s and says that after the deal, approved by the Commons fees office, mortgage interest payments - funded by expenses - increased by almost £200 a month.

However, the Labour backbench MP has said there was "nothing illegal or improper" in the claims he had made.

Referring to the London property, he said: "I don't regard it as a home - [it] is what I have to have to do my work as a member of parliament. And that's why the costs fall on the taxpayer."

Other claims include:

• Former Labour whip Fraser Kemp is said to have apologised for repeat claims for items for his second home. The MP for Houghton and Washington East is reported to have claimed for 16 bed sheets, two televisions and two DVD players for a one-bedroom flat. Mr Kemp told the Telegraph he would pay money back for his "error".
• New Forest East MP Julian Lewis, who reportedly claimed more than £7,000 from the taxpayer for redecorating his second home and installing new kitchen appliances, has denied any wrongdoing. The Conservative MP said the Westminster expenses system was "rotten" but insisted he had only used it to carry out essential maintenance and had not abused the system.
• Reports suggested Tory shadow minister for police reform David Ruffley had "flipped" his second home from London to his Bury St Edmunds constituency before claiming back thousands for furniture and fittings, including a £1,674 sofa.

Mr Ruffley said he had saved the taxpayer cash by designating his London property as his main home, while renting an unfurnished constituency property.

He had asked the Fees Office what an appropriate reimbursement would be and as a result paid for two-thirds of the cost of a £2,175 Harrods TV and £6,765 in bedroom furniture himself.

Amid signs of rising public anger about some MP expense and allowance claims, the prime minister wrote he was under "no illusions that repayment will not necessarily be sufficient sanction".

Mr Brown's comments came after a week in which former Labour minister Elliot Morley and Labour MP David Chaytor were suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party after admitting claiming for mortgages that had already been cleared.

Labour's Shahid Malik also stood down from ministerial post pending an inquiry into his expenses while Tory MP Andrew MacKay quit as parliamentary aide to David Cameron over an expenses claim.

The BBC's political correspondent Carole Walker said the prime minister had a number of disciplinary options at his disposal, including expelling individuals from the Labour Party or the government itself.

David Cameron has already stated that Conservative MPs must repay any "excessive" expenses claims or face expulsion from the party.

The Metropolitan Police Service and Crown Prosecution Service are due to meet next week to discuss whether a criminal investigation should be launched into some of the Telegraph's allegations about MPs.

Opinion polls published in some Sunday's newspapers appeared to indicate the extent to which the expenses row has damaged Labour in the run up to the Euro and local elections, due to be held on 4 June.

Its time we had a Government that puts the country and its people first, not their own greed’s, and its also time our Queen made a real stand for the people of England rather than hiding in the back grounds, but I do understand why she dose, as the Queen once said her self, there are powers to be that even she has know knowledge off?