On October 16th Horsham's MP, Francis Maude, revealed that he would not be required by Sir Thomas Legg to repay any of his parliamentary expenses.
Our prospective parliamentary candidate, Andrew Skudder, wrote a response to this, which the West Sussex County Times have not published.
It is a continuing complaint of Horsham CLP that every week the WSCT give an entire guaranteed column to the Tory leader of the county council, the Lib Dem opposition on the county council and the Tory MP. There is also a regular column by Philip Circus of the district council In addition, when the MP writes anything substantial in his weekly guaranteed column, as he did this week, it can be recycled to form part of a large news story as well.
Without any guaranteed space the local Labour Party can only submit letters, which may or may not get printed. Admittedly, in this case it was a long letter, but it presented an argument that could not have been made shorter without removing the supporting arguments. Whether it was omitted for reasons of space or because Francis Maude's "this was very good news and an end to the drama, I hope" was being taken as an instruction by the WSCT, the full text is reproduced below as it was sent.
Last week you reported that Francis Maude has not been required by Sir Thomas Legg to repay any of his expenses and he said "This was very good news and an end to all the drama, I hope."
That is a textbook example of wishful thinking. Many people, myself included, still see many of the MPs' claims, and particularly those of Francis Maude, as wrong regardless of what an idiosyncratic auditor says. I will be greatly surprised if this is the only letter you receive on the subject.
How many times have we heard that excuse that it was all within the (largely unwritten) rules? Didn't David Cameron himself say, back in May "I don't care if they were within the rules. They were wrong."? At last, something I can agree with him on, because the Legg report will only address certain specific elements and is ignoring the ethical aspect.
What Francis Maude is celebrating is analogous to a tax avoider being found innocent of tax evasion.
Let us look at the basic principles of the Additional Costs Allowance and see how the claims relate to them:
The first principle is that "The Additional Costs Allowance (ACA) reimburses Members of Parliament for expenses wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred when staying overnight away from their main UK residence (referred to below as their main home) for the purpose of performing Parliamentary duties. This excludes expenses that have been incurred for purely personal or political purposes."
As Francis Maude already had a second home in London before he was elected in Horsham it cannot really be argued that the expenses related to it were wholly or exclusively related to parliamentary purposes.
The second principle is that "You must ensure that arrangements for your ACA claims are above reproach and that there can be no grounds for a suggestion of misuse of public money."
Given the number of critical letters, just in this newspaper earlier in the year, there have been plenty of suggestions that this arrangement has given grounds for suggestions of such misuse.
The third principle says that "You must avoid any arrangement which may give rise to an accusation that you are, or someone close to you is, obtaining an immediate benefit or subsidy from public funds."
There have been plenty of accusations, following the revelation that Francis Maude entered into an arrangement to rent out the house he owns and buy another one nearby. That arrangement looks like a device to artificially generate an expense that can be claimed for, rather than anything 'necessarily incurred'.
Finally, there is a principle that "You should avoid purchases which could be seen as extravagant or luxurious."
When one-bedroom apartments can be had in Lambeth for less than £150,000, or rented for less than £1000 a month, buying a £345,000 flat does look like being both extravagant and luxurious, even more so when you take into account the service charges to pay for the concierge and gym, both of which I would class as luxuries to the extent that most people do not have or need them.
The fact that Mr. Maude has temporarily stopped claiming for the third home does not make those issues go away, and although his local Conservative Association has decided to forgive him for his claims, many of the normal voters of Horsham will not be so lenient, especially those whose monthly family income is less than the £1,850 which the Telegraph says was just the interest on that unnecessary mortgage.
Andrew Skudder
Labour Party prospective parliamentary candidate
We still feel that many of the expense claims made by our MP were against the spirit of the rules and will continue to make that argument. The local newspaper may not print those arguments, but that will not stop us from holding those beliefs and sharing them however possible.