Thursday, May 28, 2009
MP claims for servants' quarters
To the horror of the Tory leadership, which believes the expenses claims of grandees are reviving old stereo-types, Butterfill appeared slightly confused as he explained that today's Daily Telegraph had mistakenly claimed that he had servants. "It is a gross misrepresentation of what I said to the young lady at the Telegraph," he told the BBC Newsnight programme as he denied having built servants' quarters from his parliamentary allowance.
"I purchased a house in Woking in derelict condition. I gutted and rewired it. I extended the living room, I extended the kitchen, and made a family room off the kitchen; and I extended it to make a wing for my gardener and his wife."
Then, with a slip of the tongue, he indicated that he did have servants' quarters. "The mistake I made was that, in claiming interest [from the expenses allowance] on the home, I didn't separate from that the value of the servants' … er the staff … wing. I claimed the whole of that and the whole of the council tax related to that.
Good grief! Can it get any worse? Upstairs Downstairs returns to Parliament.
"I purchased a house in Woking in derelict condition. I gutted and rewired it. I extended the living room, I extended the kitchen, and made a family room off the kitchen; and I extended it to make a wing for my gardener and his wife."
Then, with a slip of the tongue, he indicated that he did have servants' quarters. "The mistake I made was that, in claiming interest [from the expenses allowance] on the home, I didn't separate from that the value of the servants' … er the staff … wing. I claimed the whole of that and the whole of the council tax related to that.
Good grief! Can it get any worse? Upstairs Downstairs returns to Parliament.
Comments:
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claiming for car expenses, when perfectly good public transport services are available might be next
The only question being whether those public transport services are available as a viable alternative.
a half hourly train service between Swansea and Cardiff, from 5 in the morning until midnight seems to be an alternative to a great number of people
if the numbers who catch the train are anything to go by.
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if the numbers who catch the train are anything to go by.
# posted by 
: 10:21 PM
: 10:21 PM<< Home
