London MP, with a constituency only 28 minutes away by Tube from Parliament, claims £12,041 for a second home. Sounds a straight-forward case in the long line of London MPs who had their expense claims widely publicised and heavily criticised during earlier this year? Except this time, there’s one difference.
The expense claim was published back in October 2004, got a bit of local media coverage and that was that.
Lucky man, that David Lammy, Labour MP for Tottenham.
From the Haringey Advertiser, 27 October 2004:
HARINGEY taxpayers have been forking out for Tottenham MP David Lammy to rent a second home in south London.
Mr Lammy admitted the expense in the first published account of MPs’ spending, and is among 32 outer London MPs claiming the second home allowance, worth up to £20,333 a year…
Mr Lammy said he stayed at the second home for three nights a week when he was working at Westminster, spending the rest of his week at his main home on the Harringay Ladder, 28 minutes from Westminster by tube.
He claimed £12,041 for the home between April 2003 and March 2004.
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8 Comments
Surely if the party is going to use “it was within the rules” as a defence of people like Lord Rennard, it’s a bit inconsistent to attack MPs of other parties who have made claims like this – which are also “within the rules”?
erm Rennard lost his job
So why is this issue being raised now?
“erm Rennard lost his job”
Not at all, as far as the official party line goes!
The story is that Rennard resigned as Chief Executive owing to ill health, having been cleared of any impropriety. There has been no official criticism of his actions, let alone any disciplinary action. For all I know, he’s continuing to claim overnight subsistence allowance in respect of the flat in Eastbourne.
(The story is that Rennard resigned as Chief Executive owing to ill health, having been cleared of any impropriety. There has been no official criticism of his actions, let alone any disciplinary action. For all I know, he’s continuing to claim overnight subsistence allowance in respect of the flat in Eastbourne)
Whisper it slowly – he lost his job!
The rest is up to the House of Lords authorities
anon
Apparently you believe Rennard – together with Clegg, Baroness Scott, Lord McNally et al. – were lying about the reasons for Rennard’s resignation, and lying when they said the party had cleared him of impropriety.
Fair enough, but if it’s accepted that he acted improperly in claiming the money, surely he should return it?
Oh please do you actually live in the real world?
as for the returning of money that’s for him and the Lords authorities
anon
You know, what you’re saying really doesn’t make much sense.
Apparently you believe that – despite what everyone told us at the time – the real reason Rennard resigned as Chief Executive was that he had acted improperly in claiming this £40,000+ of public money.
But you think it’s fine for him to keep the money (provided the Lords authorities don’t actually force him to give it back). And you think it’s fine for him and the party to lie to everyone about the real reason for his resignation. And you think it’s fine for him to carry on attending the House of Lords as a Lib Dem peer. And you think it’s fine for the party to go on trying to make political capital out of similar behaviour by members of other parties!
Talk about “not getting it”!
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[…] if he’s managed to escape the expenses scandal by virtue of being several years early with his second home claims. Share this story with your […]
[…] And the least said about David Lammy’s Celebrity Mastermind appearance the better… All in all, David Lammy seems to be accumulating a rather unfortunate record as an MP even if he’s managed to escape the expenses scandal by virtue of being several years early with his second home claims. […]