Here’s a selection of the criticisms from today’s News of the World about MEPs and their pay and benefits. Some of the criticisms are a little wide of the mark (such as pointing out that, shock horror, MEPs get a salary) but there are also activities they highlight which are in a very different league:
Tory David Sumberg—dubbed Britain’s laziest MEP for making just two speeches in the chamber since 2004—admits paying wife Carolyn almost as much as he earns himself!
He gives her up to £60,000 a year for her services as a “secretary/assistant”.
But our records show in 2002 there were payments of £7,922.22 a month in her name. That’s £95,066.64 a year.
His own website boasts she is also a mature student and has another income as a freelance translator…
Moustachioed top Tory Roger Helmer is another MEP filling his boots. He has set himself up as a champion for openness and transparency in Brussels. But in an unguarded moment he bragged to our reporter of his plans to exploit the crazy expenses system for thousands more—by tweaking the way his home address is listed.
The idea is to make his home in Ashby Magna, Leics, appear at least 1,000 kilometres from Strasbourg— which under crazy Euro allowance rules will net him an extra £135 every time he flies there—£1,620 a year.
At present the distance is calculated from his postal town Lutterworth, which makes it 996km.
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