John Bercow in Fiddler on the HoofSixty MPs received almost £300,000 in expenses transferred directly to banks each month without having to submit a single receipt.
In a previously unknown arrangement, the MPs received up to £12,000 each over four years in “no questions asked” petty cash payments from the House of Commons authorities.
The MPs, including John Bercow, the new Speaker, arranged for a fixed amount of up to £250 to be paid to them every month for up to four years, without having to say how it would be spent.
And, Tory Peer Lord Taylor of Warwick claimed £70,000 expenses on a non existent property!
Today we report that Lord Taylor of Warwick, a Conservative peer, claimed more than £70,000 in expenses between 2001 and 2007 by virtue of having his main home outside London. That home does not appear to exist. When confronted by our reporters he claimed he was living with his sick mother in Birmingham and that was his main residence.
However, Lord Taylor’s mother died in 2001 and her home was sold that year. Despite repeated requests he has refused to provide details of what he says were “a number” of properties he occupied in the Midlands at that time. Lord Oakeshott, the Liberal Democrat peer, has no doubt what has been going on. “This looks like the worst abuse yet of the discredited Lords’ expenses system,” he said. “The Conservatives should make Lord Taylor pay the money back to the taxpayer now.”
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