Speaker candidates' receipts revealed

Published on Sunday 21 June 2009 01:33

THE ten candidates for the job of Speaker, one of whom will be elected tomorrow, have had further embarrassing details of their expenses revealed.

The full details of the group's claims were not fully published last week, when the House of Commons released heavily redacted details of MPs' expenses.

But full details of the claims appear in today's papers. According to reports, Margaret Beckett, now the bookmakers' favourite, claimed for almost 11,000 in gardening expenses. Last month Beckett said a 600 claim for hanging baskets and planters in 2005 was a mistake, but it is reported today that she made three similar claims in 2001 and 2003.

John Bercow, the Conservative MP, twice charged taxpayers for the cost of hiring an accountant to complete his tax return, it is claimed.

Sir Alan Beith, the Lib Dem candidate, used office expenses to pay for his secretary to spend a month in his constituency during the 2005 election campaign.

Meanwhile, Parmjit Dhanda, the Labour MP, over-claimed on his second home allowance on at least two occasions, charging the public purse more for mortgage interest than he was charged by his lender, according to reports.

MPs choose Michael Martin's successor in a complex series of votes tomorrow. All the candidates pledged last week to turn over a new leaf in the Commons, and said they would unveil reforms to win back public trust.

Yesterday, it emerged MPs had inflated council tax bills on their expenses, receiving thousands of pounds more than they paid to local authorities.

As many as 50 MPs claimed sums higher than their council tax payments and then pocketed the difference. Up to 18 MPs have repaid the sums after the uncensored versions of their expenses were leaked to the press.

The over-claiming was made possible because, until recently, MPs did not need to provide receipts for payments of less than 250.

An investigation has found many MPs simply filled in a round figure every month – of about 150 or 200 for council tax. In other cases, MPs made 12 monthly claims even though their annual bills were split into ten instalments.