Tag Archives: paul kennedy

Stephen Tall

Lembit wins MPs’ expenses appeal, is now owed £40

By Stephen Tall | Thu 4th February 2010 - 6:25 pm

Last week it was Lib Dem MP Jeremy Browne has won his appeal against repaying £18,000 of expenses. Now fellow Lib Dem Lembit Opik has also had his appeal against repaying hundreds of pounds in parliamentary expenses allowed by Sir Paul Kennedy, the judge brought in to arbitrate on disputed claims. The BBC reports:

Montgomeryshire MP Lembit Opik was ordered to pay back £900 he claimed for a mobile phone bill. Sir Thomas Legg, the retired civil servant auditing MPs’ expenses, said the Liberal Democrat MP should not have been able to claim for the phone bill. But Mr Opik won an appeal against the ruling.

Intriguingly, this leaves the taxpayer in debt to Lembit:

The MP, one of almost 80 MPs to challenge Sir Thomas, has actually repaid £195 in total, so is now technically owed £40 by the Commons authorities.

Now there’s an ethical dilemma for an MP just months away from seeking re-election.

Menawhile, here’s a brief clip of Lib Dem MP Norman Baker talking about the publication of Sir Thomas’s report.

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The Voice

Three Lib Dem MPs fighting Legg’s expenses judgement

By The Voice | Sun 31st January 2010 - 10:20 pm

Three Lib Dems are among the 70 MPs who lodged appeals after being told to pay back some of their taxpayer-funded Commons expenses by Sir Thomas Legg, reports today’s Telegraph:

At least 35 Labour MPs and former Labour MPs have appealed against Sir Thomas’s findings, as well as 30 Conservatives, three Liberal Democrats and two independents. Among them are MPs who made some of the highest-profile claims exposed by the Telegraph investigation, including £1,645 for a duck house.

Sir Thomas’s 30-page report is thought to identify more than 300 MPs — nearly half of those in Parliament — whom he found

…

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Recent Comments

  • David Warren
    @David Raw I don't agree with the draconian laws introduced by the Thatcher government that allow union funds to be seized and campaigned vigorously against ...
  • Roland
    @Peter Martin - " but it does raise the question of why there is so little UK involvement in the sector." ...
  • David Raw
    @ David Warren You write approvingly, "we also need to highlight reforms that are needed to make unions truly democratic. The Tories passed legislation in the ...
  • David Warren
    I have been a trade union member since 1980 and for 20 years was a full time representative of the postal workers union CWU. Yes Liberals do need to relate m...
  • Peter Chambers
    Paul, thanks for this incisive piece on the relationship between the Labour Party and the privation of state provision in the UK. I agree with much of what you ...