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MP's expenses claims on show to public
BRIDLINGTON MP Greg Knight's expenses have again come under the spotlight this week.
On Saturday, The Daily Telegraph published a supplement with details of all 646 MPs' expenses, listing the biggest saints and sinners.
Mr Knight fell into neither category but was put in a group called Making A Mockery, which the Telegraph said was for "MPs who helped themselves to millions of pounds of taxpayers' money with expense claims which displayed contempt for the public purse and stretched the Parliamentary rules to the limit and beyond".
He said the Telegraph had printed details in a 'quite salacious' way.
The 61-year-old Tory MP for Yorkshire East claimed 18,305 in expenses - on top of his 64,766 per year salary.
Of this, 5,786 went on his mortgage or rent, 233 on cleaning and laundry, 2,980 on food and 1,110 on repairs and renovations at his second home in East Yorkshire.
Other claims amounted to 8,197 and the Telegraph refers to 2,600 for having a driveway repaired, as well as his love for classic cars.
Mr Knight has previously explained how his classic cars are kept in a separate building which is rated separately and not claimed for.
He has said household bills were high partly because of an ISDN line for radio interviews and partly because of an electric water purification system at his East Yorkshire house, which is not served by mains water.
He said he had presented his expenses claims to Conservative party leader David Cameron's scrutiny panel and all had been classed as within the rules and the spirit of the rules.
The parliament.uk website published the full claims from the past four years for all the country's MPs last Thursday.
But some organisations complained that certain details, such as addresses, were blacked out, because of privacy and security issues.
Mr Knight said, while he accepted threats vary from MP to MP, he said that some, including senior Cabinet ministers, were potentially at greater risk. "I can understand why they have done that for security reasons because it would enable any terrorist or deranged person to find out where their MP lives."
But he added that he was happy for his expense claims to be made public, saying he had never 'flipped' his second home.
"This is how it should have happened in the beginning. It enables the public to compare how different MPs work, but it is not as useful as it might be because every MP works differently.
"Every MP has different constituency demands and issues. "I know in the last two years I have written far more letters. It relates to the issues in the area.
"I think many MPs feel that if we were not so close to the end of a Parliament, the party leaders would have got their heads together and come up with an arrangement that was satisfactory.
"But I think each of the party leaders, and I'm not excluding my own, have had one eye on the General Election."
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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