"The single biggest problem is the lack of accountability of power.

"It underlies every issue where the party and the public disapproves of government policy but cannot change it. There is little point in lobbying parliament or taking to the streets in protest at war in Iraq or Iran, or the replacement of Trident or a new round of nuclear power stations, or the marketisation of public services, if the government (for which often read the prime minister) has already made up its (his) mind, and can't be held to account.

"The checks and balances have all but disappeared."

The Guardian 11 May 2006

Hague 'found out in last few months about Ashcroft'

Ex-Tory leader William Hague says he found out in the "last few months" that Lord Ashcroft changed an undertaking he made before being granted a peerage. The peer agreed to become a "permanent" UK resident, making it more likely he would pay tax on overseas earnings.

But this was later changed to "long-term resident" - a lesser commitment - after discussions with civil servants ...

Mr Ashcroft was given a peerage in 2000 after he signed a letter to Mr Hague promising to "take up permanent residence in the UK again", which would seem to preclude non-dom status ...

BBC NEWS  04 Mar 2010    David Cameron    Election 2010

Lord Ashcroft 'dead horse' has long way to run

Tory officials refused to meet Electoral Commission

Steve Bell

Hague hid Lord Ashcroft's tax status for months

Ashcroft admits 'non-dom' tax status

MPs, peers and taxes

Michael Ashcroft

Why Ashcroft is costing Cameron dear

It was the morning of 6 May 2005 and the Conservative Party was struggling to come to terms with the devastation of a third consecutive election defeat ... but for Belize-based Baron Ashcroft of Chichester, the operation represented the vindication of a political strategy that brought the Tories into bitter conflict with all their political opponents.

Along with two other colleagues, he had organised and funded a huge campaign to boost the Tory performance in a series of marginal seats across the country.

Twenty-four out of the 41 targeted had been taken from Labour; 25 of the 33 candidates who won seats from Labour or the Liberal Democrats had benefited from the fighting fund and six more sitting MPs had held their seats ...

Lord Ashcroft, a man who refuses to confirm that he pays taxes or is registered to vote in the UK, is ... as deputy chairman of the party ... both funding and spearheading a centralised campaign to repeat the trick – with more spectacular results – in 2010 ...

Electoral law demands that all individual donors to British political parties must be registered to vote in the country. Although Lord Ashcroft gave the Government a solemn undertaking that he would become a UK voter and pay tax in the UK when his peerage was confirmed in 2000, there is as yet no evidence that he has done either ...

The complications with Lord Ashcroft are beginning to outweigh the benefits of his millions ...

Independent  14 Feb 2010    David Cameron    Election 2010

Tories facing renewed pressure over Lord Ashcroft's tax status

Tory top brass frustrated by mystery over Michael Ashcroft's tax status

More than half of voters have doubts about 'slick' Cameron

Labour in headlong retreat, says David Cameron

Ex-ministers would have to wait two years after leaving office before lobbying a Conservative government, David Cameron said today.

The Tory leader said he wanted to crack down on the "far-too-cosy relationship" between big business and politics.

In a speech at the University of East London, he described the issue of "secret corporate lobbying" as the "next big scandal waiting to happen".

"It's important that businesses, charities and other organisations feel they can make sure their voice is heard - and, indeed, lobbying often makes for better, more workable, legislation," he said.

"But I believe that it is increasingly clear that lobbying in this country is getting out of control." ...

Independent  08 Feb 2010

Andrew MacKay to work as lobbyist after quitting parliament

MPs illicitly booked rooms for lobbyists and fundraisers

David Cameron regularly broke one of the strict rules governing the use of Parliament’s exclusive dining rooms because he had not read the rule book properly, it has emerged.

For the first time yesterday it was revealed that MPs have booked the subsidised entertaining facilities, with their plush furnishings and silver cutlery, some 8,000 times since 2004 to play host, in some cases, to people with no apparent links either to politics or good causes.

An MP who books a room for a function is supposed to be there from start to finish to take responsibility for the conduct of guests. But on three occasions the British Dental Health Foundation had functions in Parliament's dining room, which had been booked in David Cameron's name. The Conservative leader was not there.

Yesterday, the Tory leader’s office admitted that he had broken the same rule on about half of the 16 occasions that private dining rooms had been booked in his name since 2004 but that he had not noticed that the clause which said that his presence was required ...

Richard Caborn, the former Sports minister, hosted two dinners in 2008 and 2009 for the construction firm, AMEC, which operates in the nuclear industry. In a separate Commons document, the Register of Member’s Interest, Mr Caborn has disclosed that he received up to £25,000 in consultancy fees from AMEC last year. He also hosted two dinners in 2007 and 2008 for the Fitness Industry Association, which paid him up to £15,000 last year as a consultant.

Since stepping down from the Cabinet in 2007, the former Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt has booked rooms for a breakfast for BT and a dinner for BT. She is a non executive director of BT.

She has also hosted a ‘Voice of Pharmacy’ dinner, a ‘Primary care’ dinner and a ‘healthcare in the next decade’ lunch. She is a special consultant to Boots and senior adviser to Cinven, which has interest in the health sector ...

Independent  05 Feb 2010

MPs told to repay £1.1m expenses

MPs should repay £1.12m of their second home expenses, an audit of their claims dating back to 2004 has said ...

Sir Thomas said the expenses system was "deeply flawed", the rules "vague" and it had been up to MPs to "self certify" the propriety of their claims.

MPs had to sign a declaration with each claim saying "that I incurred these costs wholly, exclusively and necessarily to enable me to stay overnight away from my only or main home for the purpose of performing my duties as a Member of Parliament".

In his report Sir Thomas pointed out there had been a "culture of deference" to MPs by expenses officials and "no audit of any kind" of second homes expenses during the period he covered.

"Neither internal nor external auditors could 'go behind the member's signature'," he said ...

BBC NEWS  04 Feb 2010

Anne Main must apologise

Brown, Cameron and Clegg ordered to repay money

'Culture of dishonesty' at Westminster

Key points: Legg report

Members Estimate Committee - Report

Tories admit Goldsmith donations 'errors'

The Conservative Party has admitted making mistakes in registering the true source of a number of donations, totalling nearly £40,000.

The Electoral Commission was told the money had come from a company called Unicorn Administration.

But the company was acting of behalf of a number of people including Zac Goldsmith ...

BBC NEWS  10 Jan 2010

Tories covered up cash donations from Zac Goldsmith

The mole was among the workers who processed the MPs' expenses files, and his colleagues included serving soldiers who were moonlighting to earn extra cash for body armour and other personal equipment.

The soldiers’ fury when they saw the way that MPs were lavishing taxpayers' money on their second homes led to the mole's decision to leak the data to The Daily Telegraph via a middleman.

The man behind the leak - who is a civilian - has broken cover to tell his story for the first time, in the hope that it will shame the Government into finally supplying the right equipment for soldiers risking their lives in Afghanistan.

His account appears in No Expenses Spared, a book which is published on Friday ...

Telegraph  24 September 2009

The Cabinet Minister behind a £12.5billion nuclear power deal with French-owned energy giant EDF is set to take a highly-paid job with the firm.

John Hutton’s proposed move comes just a year after the former Business Secretary gave the go-ahead for the firm to buy many of Britain’s existing and future nuclear power plants.

It is bound to raise new questions about the so-called ‘revolving door’ which allows Ministers to quit and take up lucrative jobs with firms they helped while in Government.

The energy deal saw EDF – which is controlled by the French government – take over British Energy and its eight UK nuclear power stations ... the world’s largest energy firm, wants Mr Hutton, who resigned from the Cabinet in June, to take on a role advising the firm on ‘key strategic issues’ ...

Mail on Sunday  13 September 2009

Defence Secretary John Hutton resigns

Defence Secretary John Hutton has announced that he is resigning from the Government today, Friday 5 June 2009.

Mr Hutton has issued the following statement:

"I have decided to resign from the Government. I will also be standing down as a Member of Parliament at the next general election.

"This is not the place to go into my reasons for leaving. But I can say that it has been one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to take.

"I was delighted to be appointed Secretary of State for Defence last October.

"I have always had the deepest admiration for our Armed Forces, and everything they do ... "

MoD 05 June 2009

New nuclear plants get go-ahead

The House of Commons has awarded significant pay rises to its senior officials, including some of those who oversaw the MPs' expenses scandal.

Annual accounts just released show that the Clerk to the House, Malcolm Jack, received a rise of about 11%, meaning he now earns more than Gordon Brown.

Andrew Walker, who ran the Fees Office which administered expenses, received a rise of about 8%.

His salary rose from a band of £115,000 - £120,000 to £125,000 - £130,000.

The BBC's political correspondent Carole Walker said Mr Jack was the most senior official overseeing the running of the House of Commons.

His salary rose from a pay band of £170,000 - £175,000 to £190,000 - £195,000. He also received an increase in benefits in kind from £20,000 to £25,000.

The increases were reportedly approved by a senior pay panel, but they come at a time when others in the public sector are seeing their annual salary rises restricted to about 2% ...

BBC NEWS  03 August 2009

A bill aimed at cleaning up Parliament after the MPs' expenses scandal has become law after getting Royal Assent.

However, the government dropped plans for a legally-binding code of conduct and two new criminal offences for MPs in the face of stiff opposition.

Ministers insisted the changes made for a better bill and that it was vital it became law before the summer recess.

Opponents complained it has been rushed through and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said it would not restore public trust.

The Parliamentary Standards Bill sets up an independent body to authorise MPs' expenses.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw said its speedy approval was imperative for rebuilding public confidence in the way Parliament works, with MPs leaving Westminster for their constituencies.

When it was introduced, it had been expected to apply eventually to peers as well as MPs.

However, as it returned to the Commons on Tuesday, the Lords had been assured "categorically" it would not apply to them.

Two of three proposed offences - relating to breaking rules on the registration of interests or the ban on paid advocacy - had been dropped.

A bid to scrap Parliamentary privilege, which protects MPs from court action over what they say in the Commons, was also rejected after a surprise Commons defeat for the government.

During Tuesday's debate on amendments made in the House of Lords, which were approved without a vote, Mr Straw faced accusations the bill had been rushed through for "public relations purposes" and had since been "emasculated" ...

BBC NEWS 22 July 2009

Parliamentary Standards Bill

A lengthening list of senior MPs are preparing to ditch lucrative outside jobs before new rules introduced this week oblige them to disclose how much they bank from the work they do on top of parliamentary duties ...

An Independent on Sunday investigation has revealed for the first time the scale of the fees commanded by many of Britain's MPs in their work for external organisations.

Details of sums paid for directorships include the £245,000 in fees and "share-based awards" received by former Tory leader Michael Howard from a Canadian gold-mining firm last year.

Shadow Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude received £27,000 as non-executive chairman of the Mission Marketing and a further £52,000 in fees and options from the American technology group UTEK in 2008. Shadow Home Secretary Damian Green has received £21,000 a year through a non-executive directorship with South East Water.

Company records also show that Gerald Howarth, a shadow Defence minister, received £13,000 in 2007 for a non-executive position with Landkom International. Senior backbencher Hugo Swire was paid £61,000 for his work as non-executive chairman of Photo-Me International.

Almost 40 former Labour ministers, including Alan Milburn, Patricia Hewitt and John Reid, have signed up to lucrative external work. Ms Hewitt's position with BT alone pays £75,000 a year. But Ian McCartney, who will abandon a £113,000-a-year role with the Fluor this week, is the only senior Labour figure to ditch a contract.

A number of Mr Cameron's team, including the shadow International Development Secretary, Andrew Mitchell, the shadow Commons Leader, Alan Duncan, and Grant Shapps, the Shadow Housing minister, have already begun shedding paid jobs. Mr Maude and the shadow Foreign Secretary, William Hague, are preparing to leave their additional jobs before the election ...

The Independent 28 June 2009

When I ran into Andrew Tyrie in the corridors, he showed me the Revenue advice to MPs and Ministers. It is absolutely unambiguous in its approval of "flipping".

What Hazel Blears and Kitty Ussher did was not just legal, or tolerated. It was recommended.

If Her Majesty's Revenue instructs you how to reduce your tax bill in an officially approved way, even the Archbishop of Canterbury would designate his second home his main home "for tax purposes".

The Revenue is saying that "for tax purposes" is a technical construction that needn't bear any real relation to the material world.

And who is such a socialist that he offers to pay double the rate of stamp duty on their house purchase?

As an MP said, "MPs are now the only people in Britain who can't do this".

The difference with them and us, admittedly, is that the public purse paid for the second home in the first place.

The cost was nationalised and the profit was privatised. It was a rotten system yes, but that's what the system was ...

The Independent 22 June 2009

... a surprise call from Number 10 has seen the wife of the former Labour Party leader make the seamless transition from a £63,291-a-year euro MP to the £83,275-a-year Europe Minister in Gordon Brown’s troubled government ...

Lord Kinnock, 67, and his wife, 64, are, however, not the only members of their family who have earned a taxpayer-funded living. Until the New Year, Stephen Kinnock, the couple’s only son, was head of the St Petersburg office of the publicly funded British Council, the Government quango whose role is to promote our cultural ties abroad. Its unpaid chairman is Lord Kinnock.

Mr Kinnock, 39, now works as a director of the World Economic Forum.

Furthermore, two years ago, the Kinnocks’ only daughter, Rachel, 37, was given a job on Mr Brown’s political staff ...

Telegraph 06 June 2009

Marta Andreasen

Beyond parody and beyond reform

EU Whistleblower in £130m Case is Fired

MPs will have to agree to a legally binding code of conduct as part of a plan to "clean-up" Parliament, Gordon Brown has told the BBC.

The prime minister said he also wants a clean-up of all public institutions - such as the NHS and the BBC - in the wake of the MPs' expenses allegations.

He told the Andrew Marr show the abuses uncovered by the Daily Telegraph had offended his "Presbyterian conscience" ...

The new code of conduct would be written into the Constitutional Renewal Bill, due to be brought before Parliament later this year.

It is thought likely to include minimum service commitments to constituents, with those who break it facing possible fine or even ejection from their seats.

By-election call

Mr Brown did not rule out "recall" elections for MPs who misbehave and said he was also setting up a committee to look at wider constitutional reforms, such as a bill of rights, a written constitution and House of Lords reform.

He did not rule out electoral reform but said it was important to retain the link between MPs and their constituencies ...

Darling pressure

Meanwhile, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg is calling for Chancellor Alistair Darling to be sacked over his expenses claims.

Mr Darling was accused by the Daily Telegraph of "flipping" the location of his second home four times in four years, allowing him to claim thousands of pounds.

The Chancellor is also said to have claimed public money for paying accountants to complete his tax return ...

BBC NEWS 31 May 2009

Cameron backs MP 'sacking' powers

Lib Dems in 'sack Darling' row

The dozen MPs who are quitting at the next election in the wake of the expenses scandal will receive from the taxpayer "golden goodbyes" worth more than £1m combined.

Their continuing salaries will cost a further £600,000 if the Prime Minister Gordon Brown delays calling the polling day until next spring.

And they will leave Westminster knowing that they sit on a combined taxpayer-subsidised pension pot of some £12.5m – more than £1m each ...

Apart from Michael Martin, who is quitting as both Speaker and as an MP next month, the MPs qualify for two handouts because they are remaining in the Commons until next year.

All MPs who step down or are defeated at a general election are paid a "resettlement grant" of up to a year's salary – currently £64,766 – varying according to their age and length of service. The first £30,000 is tax-free.

In addition, all MPs can claim a maximum of £40,799 for "winding-up costs", covering the cost of paying off staff and ending office leases.

Their final salary pension schemes mean that departing MPs with 27 years' service are entitled to an annual pension of £43,400 at today's prices when they reach the age of 65.

Even an MP with only 13 years in the Commons, such as Ms Kirkbride or Ms Moran, could expect to receive a pension of more than £20,000.

Pensions expert Tom McPhail, of Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "The scheme is unsustainably generous. It exists in a different world to the 28 million working taxpayers." ...

The Independent 29 May 2009

... if the party chose Alan Johnson as a new clean-hands leader, he would do the necessary purge.

There are plenty of other clean hands to fill a cabinet – the over­looked Tony Wright of the Public Administration Committee, Chris Mullin and Fiona Mactaggart could be prominent among them.

Espouse basic governing principles – fair, clean and green – and see if the public imagination can be recaptured even now.

That would re-open public ears to things Labour has done well; an NHS in surplus, with almost non-existent waiting lists and the highest public satisfaction in its history, the 3,500 children's centres or a creditable green strategy.

conejo
22 May 09, 6:22pm

It's not just the expenses is it? This disgraceful episode comes on top of Iraq, questionable appointments to the House of Lords, being relaxed about the filthy rich, allowing billionaires to get away with paying no taxes, giving knighthoods to irresponsible bankers, stopping the BAE systems inquiry, the attack on civil liberties and using smoke and mirrors at every turn.

The list is too long to continue and the actual outcomes damn the New Labour project and those who orchestrate and implement it. New Labour has indeed proved to be Thatcherism by another name, with all the contempt for the electorate and for society that that implies. Don't we look back with nostalgia to the good old days of brown paper envelopes and politicians staying at the Ritz?

New Labour - and all the other weasels - have almost made good,old fashioned sleaze look respectable.

We have been played for fools and we don't like it. The existing party members are discredited and contaminated by the last 10 years. The country does not need a reformed Labour Party; it needs new parties and a reformed electoral system.

Guardian 23 May 2009

The revelations that Moran spent £22,500 for dry rot repairs on a third home, in Southampton, 100 miles from her constituency and, according to Financial Times, that she used parliamentary resources to help a company partially run from her constituency office win up to £50,000 of public funding and sponsorship, have alienated many constituents so much that they are considering voting for a television celebrity to replace her.

The former That's Life presenter, Childline founder, NSPCC trustee and I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! participant Esther Rantzen announced this week that she is considering standing as an anti-sleaze candidate against Moran ...

Guardian 23 May 2009

Public anger at the conduct of MPs is likely to be exacerbated by the news that any MP forced to quit over the expenses scandal will be in line for pay-offs of more than £100,000 and pensions of up to £30,000 a year.

Tory MP Douglas Hogg, who submitted a bill for cleaning his moat, has already announced his retirement, while three Labour MPs – Mr Morley, Mr Chaytor and Margaret Moran, who claimed £22,500 on expenses to treat dry rot at her "second home" over 100 miles from her Luton constituency, will be summoned next week to a disciplinary panel to defend their claims. Gordon Brown has warned that no MP who has "defied the rules" on expenses will be allowed to stand at the next election.

MPs embroiled in the scandal remain entitled to two pay-offs so long as they serve until the general election, rather than resign immediately. All MPs who step down, or are defeated, at an election are paid a "resettlement grant" designed to compensate for loss of salary. It ranges between six months' and one year's pay depending on age and length of service in the Commons.

An MP aged between 55 and 64 who has been in Parliament for 15 years will be paid a year's salary – £64,766 at current rates. The first £30,000 is tax-free. In addition, all MPs can claim a maximum of £40,799 for "winding-up costs" to pay off staff and end office leases. Politicians also benefit from a generous final salary pension scheme heavily subsidised by the taxpayer.

The Independent 21 May 2009

Labour MP Ben Chapman said today he was "extremely distressed" after an investigation was launched into claims that he was given permission by Commons authorities to claim expenses for part of a mortgage he had already repaid.

However, the former civil servant told the Daily Telegraph he did not intend to "repay a penny" after correspondence showed the Wirral South MP sought – and was given – permission to reclaim the interest payments on the full value of his original mortgage despite paying off £295,000 of the loan in 2002.

Chapman, 68, benefited by £15,000 over 10 months between December 2002 and October 2003 from an arrangement which the newspaper said was apparently not unique to him.

The MP said: "Whatever I've done, I've been entirely open and above board with the authorities of parliament and I'm distressed that this has occurred."

When asked by the Telegraph whether he intended to repay the money, he reportedly said: "The answer is no. It's all something that was agreed a long time ago."

Guardian 18 May 2009

Ben Chapman overclaimed £15,000 on mortgage

Speaker Michael Martin ... attacked MPs who asked why police were looking for the source, whom he described as a possible security risk.

Labour MP Kate Hoey said, as the newspaper had chosen to black out sensitive details like addresses, asking the police to investigate was "an awful waste" of police resources and suggested MPs had something to hide.

But an annoyed Mr Martin said he had already heard her "pearls of wisdom on Sky News".

He added: "Is it the case that an employee of this House should be able to hand over any private data to any organisation of his or her choosing?"

"It's easy to say to the press this should not happen - it's a wee bit more difficult when you just don't have to give quotes to the press and do nothing else."

He also told off Lib Dem Norman Baker - who has long campaigned for greater transparency on MPs' expenses - as "another member who is keen to say to the press what the press wants to hear".

He was angry that Mr Baker, he said, had suggested the commission had "done nothing" - pointing out that it had made recommendations for reform last year and MPs had voted against them ...

BBC NEWS 11 May 2009

Commons Speaker Michael Martin's statement

Speaker faces no confidence call

Police called in to find mole

Speaker well out of order, order

Speaker Michael Martin faces spending probe

'Still corrupt'

Speaker faces growing pressure to step down

Police question Speaker's account of Damian Green affair

Speaker uses 319-year-old law to gag reports on ID card scheme

Michael Gove, a front-bench ally of David Cameron, spent thousands on furnishing his London home before “flipping” his Commons allowance to a new property in his Surrey constituency, and claiming £13,000 in moving costs.

Shortly after being elected MP for Surrey Heath in 2005, Mr Gove furnished a house in north Kensington, west London, for which he claimed the Additional Costs Allowance.

Over a five-month period between December 2005, and April 2006, he spent more than £7,000 on the semi-detached house, which Mr Gove, 41, and his wife Sarah Vine, a journalist, bought for £430,000 in 2002. Around a third of the money was spent at Oka, an upmarket interior design company established by Lady Annabel Astor, Mr Cameron’s mother-in-law ...

Some months later, Mr Gove moved house and transferred his second home allowance from the west London home to a £395,000 new property near Guildford.

In October 2006 he submitted a £13,259 bill for the cost of the move, including his local authority searches, fees and stamp duty. In between the house moves, he stayed for a night at the Pennyhill Park Hotel and Spa, charging the taxpayer more than £500 for a single night’s stay.

In 2007-08 and 2006-07 Mr Gove claimed the maximum amount of money permitted under the additional costs allowance: £23,083 and £22,110 respectively ...

Telegraph 11 May 2009

Andrew Lansley sold home after expenses renovations

Miss Blears, who as Communities Secretary is responsible for housing policy, also spent time in one of London’s most fashionable hotels paid for from public funds.

In March, 2004, Miss Blears stated that her second home was the property she owned in her Salford constituency.

During that month she bought an £850 television set and video recorder from Selfridges, and a £651 mattress from Marks & Spencer.

Her mortgage on the Salford property, which she has owned with her husband since June, 1997, was £300 a month.

The following month she changed her declaration and began claiming that a flat in Kennington, south London, was her second home. She started claiming £850 a month for the mortgage on the flat.

In August, 2004, she sold the flat for £200,000, making a profit of £45,000 ...

After selling the south London flat, Miss Blears stayed at hotels in London during September and October, 2004, at taxpayers’ expense. She spent two nights at the Zetter hotel in Clerkenwell, where rooms cost £211 a night. It had just been voted one of the world’s “50 coolest hotels” by Condé Nast and the Frommers guidebook said of thVIDEO: Hazel Blears reacts to expenses scandal e Zetter: “Heaven will be a let-down after this.”

In December, 2004, the minister bought another London flat for £300,000. The monthly mortgage was more than £1,000 and Miss Blears initially claimed the maximum £400 a month for groceries.

During the next four months, Miss Blears spent £4,874 on furniture, £899 on a new bed and £913 on a new TV — the second funded by the taxpayer in less than a year.

In 2004-05, the minister spent just £94 less than the then maximum permitted allowance of £20,902.

The expense claims continued during the 2005-06 financial year. In March 2006, in the run-up to the deadline for claims, Miss Blears spent £668 on bed linen and curtains, £439 on crockery and kitchen equipment and more than £200 on bath towels ...

Telegraph 08 May 2009

Ms Smith's apology came as Labour left-winger Harry Cohen, who was said to have claimed more than £300,000 in second home allowances on his house in the capital, insisted that he had done nothing wrong as it was "part of my salary".

Mr Cohen said that MPs had been told "Go out boys and spend it" when the present system was introduced under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.

The Mail on Sunday reported that the MP listed a single-bedroom schoolhouse in Colchester, Essex, and a caravan on nearby Mersea Island as his main home.

The paper said that it meant that over the past five years he was able to claim the maximum allowance of £104,701 on his constituency home 70 miles away in Leyton and Wanstead, east London.

It calculated that since 1990, he had received a total of £310,714 in allowances.

Mr Cohen told the Press Association that the arrangement had been cleared with the House of Commons authorities.

He said that the former Conservative minister John Moore had told MPs "Go out boys and spend it" when he introduced a big uprating of the allowance in the 1980s to head off a pay revolt by backbench Tories.

Mr Cohen said that he had taken full advantage of the arrangement ever since.

"That is exactly what John Moore said on behalf of Mrs Thatcher to her Tory MPs. That makes it part of my salary," he said.

"It really is part of my salary in all but name. That is what it exists for."

Mr Cohen said the Colchester property was his "family home".

He said that there was no reason under the Commons rules why London MPs should not live outside the capital and have a second home in their constituency.

"It is the legitimate costs of having a constituency home to do my job. We don't have a system where people are required to live in their constituency," he said.

"I am doing nothing wrong whatsoever. I am using it for parliamentary purposes ... "

The Independent 29 March 2009

LORD MYNERS, the minister in charge of the government’s assault on tax havens, has used a blind trust to conceal £250,000 of his own money in an offshore shelter.

Details of the secret holding have been obtained by The Sunday Times as G20 leaders gather in London pledging to stamp out tax abuses.

Myners transferred 500,000 of his own shares in the Ermitage hedge fund, based in Jersey, into a blind trust when he became a minister in October ...

In 2006 Myners backed the £40m acquisition of Ermitage. He was appointed chairman and had a 5% stake for which he paid £250,000.

The shares were held in his blind trust and it is believed they were quietly sold on his behalf by a private bank in the past few weeks. Ministers typically create blind trusts to avoid possible conflicts of interest over their financial affairs, but critics say they can be used as a means of concealment.

Hedge funds operating in Jersey can avoid paying corporate tax on profits and are not required to comply with the tougher regulations of the City of London. They manage more than £40 billion of funds.

Myners resigned from his business roles when he was appointed City minister. These included his chairmanship of the Guardian Media Group and his role at Ermitage.

Documents filed with the Jersey Financial Services Commission reveal that he still had a stake in the hedge fund as recently as January. His stake was the fifth largest in the company, which in 2006 was managing more than £1.5 billion of investments ...

Sunday Times 29 March 2009

Lord Myners suffers new blow with discovery of offshore holdings

Lord Myners ‘knew about massive pension payout for disgraced banker’

MPs have demanded a pay rise of up to £40,000 in return for giving up their second homes allowance, following the row over the payments claimed by employment minister Tony McNulty ... support for the plans appeared to be growing after Mr McNulty became the latest minister to be criticsed for their use of the Additional Costs Allowance, which allows MPs who live outside inner London to claim money for the upkeep of a second home – either in their constituency or the capital.

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, and Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper, the husband and wife Cabinet team, have also been investigated over their claims, and MPs fear that the damaging headlines will continue unless the system is completely reformed.

An unnamed former Labour minister told the Daily Mail that MPs' pay should be pegged to that of head teachers and GPs at around £100,000 ...

Telegraph 24 March 2009

Tony McNulty allowed to keep £60,000

Second home row minister Tony McNulty broke rules, says Tory

It's time to change the rules on MPs' expenses

MPs' expenses: other MPs who have faced criticism

Employment minister faces inquiry call over £60,000 second-home allowance

Smith defends expenses claim for home

The official elections watchdog has launched an inquiry into donations to the Tory Party made by the company of wealthy party backer Lord Ashcroft.

The Electoral Commission confirmed that it was mounting a formal investigation into the multi-million pound donations made by Bearwood Corporate Services.

It is looking into a possible "failure to comply" with the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act.

The Tories have insisted the donations were "legal and permissible".

The probe concerns "a number of donations," said a spokesman for the Electoral Commission.

Lord Ashcroft, the party's deputy chairman, has paid millions of pounds to the party through Bearwood, a UK-registered company ...

For a company to be eligible to make donations to a political party it has to be registered in the UK and carry out business here. A failure on either count would amount to a breach of the law.

Lord Ashcroft was partly brought up in Belize and he reportedly still has extensive business interests in the former British colony.

He has consistently refused to say whether he is resident or pays taxes in the UK ...

BBC NEWS 22 February 2009

Lord Ashcroft: controversial Tory donor

One of the Conservative Party's biggest financial backers has stopped donating until "issues" over tax are resolved, it has revealed.

Monaco-based businessman Lord Laidlaw is believed to have given the Tories around £3m in 2007.

In that year he was criticised by the Lords appointments watchdog for taking his seat but not honouring an agreement to give up his status as a tax exile ...

Lord Laidlaw was ennobled in 2004, with the Lords Appointments Commission saying it had been given an "assurance" that he would become a UK resident for tax purposes.

But three years later he was criticised by the commission, which took the unprecedented step of naming him in its annual report for not sticking to his word and instead remaining a tax exile ...

BBC NEWS 05 February 2009

The four members of the House of Lords, who face allegations that they are prepared corruptly to sell their influence on legislation, are minor players in a very big operation, the lobbying industry.

Lobbying is ... done subtly without necessarily going through transparent channels. And the industry is often underhand.

It creates front groups, for instance, and knows how to fake grassroots campaigns and present biased third-party endorsements as if they were independent ...

Most of the work is done to bring additional business or reduced competition to corporate interests. A recent classic was the remarkable about-face in the Government's policy on the future of nuclear power.

It stated in 2003 that it was "not going to build a new generation of nuclear power stations now". But by 2007 the Government had come round to the view that it would be a "profound mistake" to rule out nuclear power. What had made the difference in such a short time? The economics of power generation hadn't changed a lot nor had knowledge of environmental risks.

Lobbying is the inescapable answer. The Select Committee on Public Administration came as near as it could to saying this when it recently observed: "It is quite extraordinary the number of former MPs and ministers who are now working for the nuclear industry: it includes Geoffrey Norris, Jamie Reed, Jack Cunningham, Ian McCartney, Richard Caborn, Brian Wilson and Alan Donnelly. Some of them also run PR and lobbying firms like Sovereign Strategy which is run by Alan Donnelly and also employs Jack Cunningham."

The Committee also referred to concern that some areas of government policy have effectively been captured at an early stage by interest groups, usually within industry, and that public consultations have been unbalanced in the favour of these interests.

The other place to look for large-scale lobbying is the recent decision to create an additional runway at Heathrow airport ...

There are two methods of dealing with this unsatisfactory situation – the Obama way or the Brown way.

The very first measure that President Obama took on entering office was to close what he called the "revolving door" of people who immediately move from government to lobbying. And in stern words that my lords Taylor, Truscott, Moonie and Snape would do well to ponder he said:

"Public service is a privilege. It's not about advantaging yourself. It's not about advancing your friends or your corporate clients. It's not about advancing an ideological agenda or the special interests of any organisation. It is about advancing the interests of Americans."

...

The Independent 30 January 2009

LABOUR peers are prepared to accept fees of up to £120,000 a year to amend laws in the House of Lords on behalf of business clients, a Sunday Times investigation has found.

Four peers — including two former ministers — offered to help undercover reporters posing as lobbyists obtain an amendment in return for cash.

Two of the peers were secretly recorded telling the reporters they had previously secured changes to bills going through parliament to help their clients.

Lord Truscott, the former energy minister, said he had helped to ensure the Energy Bill was favourable to a client selling “smart” electricity meters. Lord Taylor of Blackburn claimed he had changed the law to help his client Experian, the credit check company. ...

Taylor, a former BAE consultant, said he would not table the amendment himself but offered to conduct a “behind the scenes” campaign to persuade ministers and officials. After agreeing a one-year retainer for £120,000, he said he would discuss the amendment with Yvette Cooper, chief secretary to the Treasury, and talk to officials drafting the bill ...

Sunday Times 25 January 2009

Price for a peer to fix the law

Time to clean up the House of Lords

The Commons Standards and Privileges Committee said the scale of the rule breach caused "justified public concern" ...

The Committee's report dismissed the idea that Mr Hain's workload as Work and Pensions Secretary and Wales Secretary was an excuse for the errors.

"This is a case of an experienced Member, a Cabinet Minister at the time, failing in his duty as a Member of Parliament to register donations within the time required by the House," it said.

"We understand that the pressures on Ministers and on front-benchers can be onerous, but we cannot accept - and we are sure that none of them would suggest - that this excuses them from their obligations under the rules of the House."

The report indicated that usually the failures would have attracted a "heavier penalty", but Mr Hain had already lost his job. ...

Telegraph 22 January 2009

At the same time as she was 'burying bad news' in regard to MPs expenses, Ms Harman was telling a Fabian Society conference that:

"As we seek to build a fairer society in the future, there must be no return to the awful spectacle of directors of companies awarding themselves bonuses of hundreds of millions.

"No one seeks to defend that now and that sort of excess and greed has no place in the new social order of a fair and equal society."

Guardian 19 January 2009

Gordon Brown ... abandons expenses objections

A telling vignette on New Labour sleaze. Ex-Blackpool Council leader Roy Fisher moved seamlessly into the post of Chairman of NHS Blackpool (used to be the primary care trust) following defeat in the local elections. Now he gets to raid public funds to sub a £70-a-head junkett at one of Blackpool's top hotels. The, er, 'workers' it emerges, were not from the local hospital. So who were they? We're not told.

BLACKPOOL health bosses today came under fire for spending £30,000 of taxpayers money on a lavish staff party.

More than 420 workers danced the night away at the resort's Hilton Hotel as part of the celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of the NHS.

Revellers at the black tie ball enjoyed a sumptuous three-course meal, entertainment from top resort DJs, singers and performers at a cost of £70 per head.

But the party was today attacked as "a travesty" and "totally unjustified" as, apart from a token £5 contribution from all those attending, the cost of the glitzy event was met from NHS funds.

Blackpool Gazette 06 December 2008

Public grilling for NHS chiefs

NHS should fork out

Letters in response to £30k party

Call for NHS to give back £30k party cash

NHS party - health chiefs 'apologise'

Blackpool NHS chiefs ignored celebration advice

£30,000 staff party sparks outcry from fund-raisers

Jack Straw, the justice secretary, is facing two official inquiries over a £3,000 donation from an international energy company that was not disclosed to the Electoral Commission or to parliament.

The company, Canatxx Energy Ventures, an offshoot of a Texas-based firm, helped to fund a party to celebrate Straw’s 25th anniversary as an MP. The company was involved at the time in a controversial plan to build a £300m underground gas storage facility in Lancashire, close to Straw’s constituency.

The company’s donation for the function at the Blackburn Rovers football stadium, Ewood Park, is under scrutiny because it plans to resubmit its application for the facility in the next few weeks.

Opponents of the scheme say Straw should never have accepted the money. ...

Sunday Times 09 November 2008

A Geologic Detective Story

My Lords, with the leave of the House, I should like to make a personal Statement.

On 22 October, during exchanges on an Oral Question tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Ezra, on winter energy supplies, I asked a supplementary question about gas storage.

On reflection, I should have declared an interest, which appears in the register of non-parliamentary interests, in a company called Canatxx Energy Ventures Limited.

I humbly apologise to the House.

They Work for You 29 October 2008

The Conservatives came under fire yesterday after it emerged that one of their biggest donors heads a company involved in short-selling shares in Bradford & Bingley.

Michael Hintze, whose company, CQS Management, took out short positions on the collapsed bank, is a backer of David Cameron, George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, and Conservative headquarters. Bradford & Bingley has lost 95% of its market value in the last year.

Hintze has paid for two drinks receptions held by Cameron's office and contributed an unspecified sum to the running costs of Osborne's office. He has given donations to the offices of five other senior Tories. Since Cameron became leader he has given £665,000 to the party and his company has made loans of £2.5m.

Hintze's donations are revealed tonight in a Channel 4 Dispatches programme, Cameron's Money Men, alongside donations made to the party by at least five other hedge fund managers of £50,000 a year each.

The programme also says Paul Ruddock and David Craigen, of Lansdowne Partners, have given £260,000 between them. Lansdowne is reported to have shorted shares in HBOS. ...

Guardian 29 September 2008

Twenty-eight former Labour ministers have cashed in on their connections in government and Whitehall by taking jobs in the private sector in the past two years.

It represents the biggest exodus of ministers into the private sector since Labour came to power and is worth at least £10m a year in salaries and fees.

Thirteen of those who have accepted jobs are still serving MPs - and at least a third have a potential conflict of interest because their companies lobby government or bid for contracts. Two former Labour defence ministers have accepted jobs from weapons companies.

This weekend MPs demanded tougher rules to prevent ministers cashing in on their government connections. In opposition, Gordon Brown criticised the last Tory government for the “revolving door” from the “cabinet room to the boardroom”. ...

Sunday Times 24 February 2008

George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, is facing questions over reports that he accepted £487,000 in donations last year without full declarations. According to the Mail on Sunday, he is blaming unclear advice from a civil servant for his decision not to report the funds to the Register of Members' Interests.

Telegraph.co.uk 13 January 2008

He has a powerful empire, a network of agents and a Caribbean hideaway. It is not surprising that some of David Cameron's most senior allies refer to Lord Ashcroft, privately, as "Blofeld".

The millionaire deputy chairman of the Conservative Party directs the operations of SPECTRE, the Special Executive for Capturing Target seats, from his well-equipped suite of offices in Millbank Tower. The only thing missing is a white cat. The Tories' presiding electoral genius pores over Sudoku puzzles instead.

Yesterday, the Conservative leader defended Lord Ashcroft, at his monthly press conference, by saying that he is responsible for only four per cent of donations to the Tory party, far less than David Sainsbury or Lakshmi Mittal have given to Labour.

He was "happy", he said, with the assurances he has been given that the peer's tax and residency status are in order. ...

The problem is that Lord Ashcroft chooses not to say publicly whether he is resident, and pays tax, in this country. I rang his office yesterday to ask the question again.

"It is a private matter," was the response of his spokesman. But it isn't. People who fund political parties should live in this country and contribute to the public services they hope to shape. In the current murky climate I don't see why they should be afraid to make a public declaration of that position as well.

In Lord Ashcroft's case the public interest is irrefutable because he promised, when he was given a peerage seven years ago, that he would "take up permanent residence in the UK". It was in fact a condition of his elevation to the House of Lords.

And yet, in 2004 - four years after he was granted the peerage - the Lords expenses register, his last public statement on the matter, listed his main residence as Belize.

Lord Ashcroft's website declares: "If home is where the heart is, then Belize is my home." ...

Telegraph.co.uk 04 December 2007

MP calls for tax-exile peers to be removed from Lords

Ashcroft: new questions

Cameron pressed to reveal truth on Tory millionaire's tax

The darker side of Dave

On 31 October 2005 Blunkett was forced to sell shares he bought for his children in a company called DNA Bioscience, a company specialising in genetic testing, that tendered for a contract at his own department. Blunkett also chaired DNA Bioscience for two weeks after resigning as Home Secretary. ...

An investigation by Cabinet secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell found that although Blunkett had not broken the Ministerial Code by becoming a director for, or buying shares in the company, he should have consulted the Advisory Committee before doing so.

Blunkett declared that he would not be resigning quoting to a newspaper "I have done nothing wrong." A statement by Downing Street said that the prime minister, Tony Blair did not believe that Blunkett's mistake should stop him doing his job.

Opposition parties called for an enquiry after a series of events which broke rules of political conduct set by an independent Whitehall watchdog. Under the Ministerial Code of Conduct, former ministers are required to consult the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments over any appointment they take up within two years of leaving office. [12]

However on 1 November 2005, in a statement to the press Blunkett said:

"I clearly have broken the Ministerial Code of Conduct. When I say I have done nothing wrong, what I mean is I have actually not in office taken any steps, been involved in any discussions, had any talks, or misused my position in any way. I am guilty of a mistake and I am paying the price for it. I make no bones about saying that is my fault and I stand by it. I am deeply sorry for the embarrassment that I have caused to the Prime Minister... It is the Prime Minister that some people want to target."

sourcewatch.org

“David Blunkett has quit as home secretary after an e-mail emerged showing a visa application for his ex-lover's nanny had been fast-tracked. The e-mail had said "no favours but slightly quicker". Mr Blunkett said he had not been aware of its contents and insisted he had done nothing wrong. But he said questions about his honesty had damaged the government. ”

“Sir Alan Budd's inquiry into the nanny allegations established there had been an exchange of e-mails about the visa application between Mr Blunkett's office and immigration officials.”

BBC NEWS 15 December 2004

“he was forced to quit a second time in January 2001 over allegations of misconduct over a passport application for Dome supporters, the Hinduja brothers. This was seen as terminal even though inquiries later cleared him of any wrongdoing.”

BBC NEWS 13 August, 2004

Following Peter Mandelson’s return to the Cabinet, as Northern Ireland Secretary on 11 October 1999, the Observer alleged on 24 January 2001 that he had called the immigration minister Mike O’Brien to pass on an enquiry about the possibility of an Indian business man, Srichand Hinduja, obtaining British Citizenship.

Concerns arose about whether undue influence had been exerted on behalf of Srichand and his brother, particularly as they had donated £1 million to sponsor the Faith Zone in the Millennium Dome when Mr Mandelson was the Minister in charge of the project in 1998.

Following discussions between Tony Blair and Mr Mandelson, it was decided that he should resign, particularly in the light of vociferous calls for this in the press, and he announced this outside No. 10 on 24 January 2001.

Individual ministerial responsibility .pdf - Page 29ff - 05 April 2004

Peter Mandelsohn: Secret Loan

There was no single cause for the resignation of the Transport Secretary Stephen Byers in May 2002, but pressure for his resignation began on 9 October 2001 when the press published a leaked e-mail from Mr Byers’s special adviser, Jo Moore, sent on the day of the September 11 terrorist attack in New York, saying that it is ‘now a good day to bury bad news’.

Further controversy surrounded Mr Byers’ decision to take Railtrack into administration on 13 November 2001, a move that whilst popular with many Labour back benchers also led to Conservative demands for his resignation and anger from many of the company’s shareholders.

Attention returned to the role of Jo Moore on 14 February 2002 when two papers alleged that she had tried to release figures for rail delays on the day of Princess Margaret’s funeral.

Following these allegations, Jo Moore tendered her resignation and Mr Byers also announced that Martin Sixsmith, the Director of Communications, in the Department press office, had resigned.

Rather than clearing the air, the departure of Mr Sixsmith caused further crisis for the Department when he contradicted Mr Byers’ account in the Sunday Times, claiming that the first he knew of his ‘resignation’ was when he heard it on the radio.

Mr Byers made a statement on the matter on 26 February 2002, but after continuing allegations that he had misled Parliament, on 9 May 2002 Mr Byers told the Commons that he had given ‘what turned out to be an incorrect understanding’ of Mr Sixsmith’s departure. On 28 May Mr Byers announced his resignation.

Professor Diana Woodhouse has described the various crises and problems that contributed to Mr Byers’ departure ...

It highlighted his part, when Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, in the decision to allow Richard Desmond, a publisher of soft pornography and subsequent donor to the Labour Party, to take over Express Newspaper Group (although his role was only a regulatory one);

revisited the uncertainties surrounding the takeover of the Rover car company, in which Byers had been involved, also as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry;

blamed him for the rail crash at Potter’s Bar (although this was clearly not his fault); gave widespread coverage to the claim of a Paddington rail crash survivor that Byers had lied to her over the future of Railtrack (although the claim was based on an obvious misunderstanding);

blamed him for failing to devise a rational policy for running the London Underground (although a main problem was the ongoing feud between the Mayor of London and the Treasury);

and portrayed a select committee’s criticism of the Department’s ten-year transport plan as a personal defeat (Transport Committee 2001-02).

Finally, a number of journalists, who had been given an ‘off the record’ briefing by Byers on the timetable for Britain’s entry into the Euro, named him as the source of their reports.

This forced No. 10 to move quickly to deny the timetable’s authenticity, a move which undermined Byers’ credibility still further.

Byers tendered his resignation, not only catching the press by surprise but creating a precedent by delivering his formal statement from No. 10 [on 28 May 2002].

The events leading up to Mr Byers’ resignation were examined by the Public Administration Committee in its report, These Unfortunate Events.

The relationship between ministers, their special advisers and the civil service has been the subject of ongoing interest in Parliament.

It was the subject of an earlier report by the Public Administration Select Committee in 2000,95 and on 8 April 2003 the Committee of Standards in Public Life published a report on this issue which led the Government to propose further regulation of the relationship, by means of changes to the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers.

Individual ministerial responsibility .pdf - Page 30ff - 05 April 2004

These Unfortunate Events

"It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice; ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government; ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.

"Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse; gold is your God; which of you have not barter'd your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?

"Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defil'd this sacred place, and turn'd the Lord's temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here by the people to get grievances redress'd, are yourselves become the greatest grievance.

"Your country therefore calls upon me to cleanse this Augean stable, by putting a final period to your iniquitous proceedings in this House; and which by God's help, and the strength he has given me, I am now come to do; I command ye therefore, upon the peril of your lives, to depart immediately out of this place; go, get you out!

"Make haste! Ye venal slaves be gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors. In the name of God, go!"

bilderberg.org