Labour Minister Dawn Butler has issued a legal apology to Sarah Teather for calling her a hypocrite over MPs’ expenses. Butler made the accusation while the running of Sarah Teather’s office was under investigation. The Parliamentary Standards Commissioner later dropped the investigation because there were no grounds to suspect any wrongdoing by Ms Teather.
From the letter (signed by Dawn Butler as well as councillors and senior officials from Brent Central Labour Party):
We accept that statements made in those [leaflets] falsely suggested that you are a hypocrite when you speak on the issue of MPs’ expenses because your own expense claims, then under investigation, have been improperly made. We accept that this is wholly untrue.
We would like to apologise to you for the embarrassment and distress caused and undertake not to repeat any assertion or suggestion that you are a hypocrite when you speak on the issue of MPs’ expenses.
You can read the full story in the Evening Standard and download the letter of apology here.
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5 Comments
About time. Dawn Butler has fallen into the hands of the “Win at any cost” mentality of London Labour.
Let’s hope she’s “Sunset Butler” by the time May 6 comes to a close.
As a natural Labour voter in the newly formed Brent Central constituency, I have written to my local Labour in Brent party, to ask how Ms. Butler MP can justify claiming over £66K in the 2nd home allowance? I heard nothing from their office, I won’t hold my breath.
So Ms. Butler can hardly expect party loyalty if she can abuse the 2nd home allowance, which was not set up to be fleeced by Greater London MPs.
This issue came up at the MapRA Hustings on Monday night. There was a question from the floor on expenses which had Dawn attempting to justify £66,000 ACL since 2005 for her Wembley second home, when she has another property in Stratford. As we know, Sarah Teather has not claimed the second home / additional costs allowances. Dawn did well and may have carried it, but a follow up question on Brent Labours’ smear campaign and the ficititous complaints to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner about Sarah Teather by someone from Dawn Butlers team made a stench. Sarah announced that she had received a written apology from Dawn and won the ‘clean up dirty expenses’ applause. Cllr Ann John attempted a last minute clawback… however her proclaiming of a ‘citizens right to know’ sounded hollow, now that we know of the ‘false… improper…wholly untrue….’ nature of what they wanted us to know.
The offending letter and the written apology are now posted on The Straight Choice