Five, if you want to include UKIP and Sinn Fein.
I don’t think there any UKIP MPs in Parliament.
Bob Spink is their first MP, though it was two of their MEPs who were fraudulent.
I forgot about him, he defected from the Conservatives.
Why do MEPs get London allowances?
This case wasn’t about London allowances, but claiming for a non-existent assistant’s wages. See the story here.
Bloody hell.
That kind of gall is almost… impressive.
As a die hard Manchester City supporter I resent your closing para 
But yes, we are as one
It used to be that a gentleman or lady in such circumstances would use a revolver and ‘do the decent thing’.
Guns being in rather short supply in the UK do you think they might still do the decent thing and fall on their swords?
…or any pointy thing come to that
So listen to this and slit your wrists.
How dare we interfere in his private life (even though it is subsidised by the taxpayers). It’s all the fault of the Freedom Of Information Act!
That confirms that some MPs are living in a parallel universe to the rest of us.
According to today’s *Times * several MPs who attended public meetings last night were continually heckled and abused by very angry members of the various audiences. I wonder why? It’s all jealousy I suppose.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6345993.ece
That Steen guy really got my hackles up. Fancy having the hide to bring in FOI legislation and catching my rorts!
Our politicians are not paragons of virtue but you have ones that leave us for dead!
Amazing. Truly-fucking-amazing.
How dare we, how very dare we
I like that he claimed everybody was jealous of his house and then in nearly the same breath said, “it’s not particularly nice… it does me nicely.”
You know, I used to make fun of Paddy Ashdown when I lived in Yeovil, but it seems that “boring and honest” is about as much as you can hope for in an MP.
Have you noticed that all these MPs have sodding big posh houses/flats dotted about the UK?
Nicely furnished with moats, duck houses,electric security gates etc.etc.
They must be quite well off to be able to afford all that…oh wait…
I think there is something to be said for the idea that they have concocted this generous expenses system to compensate for MP’s salaries being held artificially low, to appease the voters. Perhaps we would be better to just pay them a more realistic salary?
The current MP’s salary is what, £65K? That may sound a lot, but it’s pathetic compared to what they could be earning. These people are ambitious high-flyers. In non-political jobs, most of them could be earning well into six figures like, for example, the journalists who are reporting the story.
I agree with the above. That £65,000 is low compared to say the headmaster of a large secondary school or a GP, both of whom would be earning over £100k. Ann Widdecombe made a very pertinent point on this matter. She said that unless you pay MPs a living wage, then (as happened in the past) Parliament would only be populated by people with a private fortune (usually Conservatives) or those sponsored by the trade unions (usually Labour). That is not a representative mix of the general population.
God, I would never have thought I would ever agree with the sainted Miss Widdecombe!
This is absolutely nothing to do with salaries. Those members who have been caught out have come from all parties and financial backgrounds. Increasing salaries would have no affect on that type of person.
In some cases there probably were genuine mistakes made but in the majority it was plain greed. It seems that fraud has been carried out too and if proved prosecutions should follow.
Rewarding them with an increase in pay is really going to improve their image.
They vote on their own pay and their own pension scheme. It’s like a cosy little club, insulated from reality. Most of those caught were only sorry for getting caught, not for what they did.
It’s a fallacy too that most mps would earn more money outside politics.
That’s an old survey - an academic on the radio recently quoted a later one where it showed even more emphatically how little their skills are worth in the real world.
The evidence mentioned in that link does not seem particularly compelling. They merely interviewed some MPs, many of whom were apparently retiring anyway. Getting on for half of the others (if I am correctly interpreting the rather ambiguous statements in the news item) said that they were earning more than in Parliament, and bear in mind that hardly anybody answers that question honestly.
If you have “former Member of Parliament” on your resumé and still can’t clear £65K per year… I’m sorry, I just don’t believe it. Get a better agent.