Margaret Moran: Taxpayers money to fix dry rot.

Internal records show that the Commons' authorities considered that Labour backbencher Margaret Moran's arrangement broke the "spirit" of the rules but felt powerless to stop her taking advantage of the loose system of Parliamentary allowances.
The semi-detached house, a hundred yards from the seafront in Southampton, is a two-hour drive from both Parliament and Miss Moran's marginal constituency of Luton South.

Over a four-year period, she also spent thousands of pounds on decorating, repairs and furnishings on three separate properties, switching between Westminster, Luton and Southampton and doing up each home in turn.

Her bill for £22,500 worth of dry rot treatment in Southampton led to alarm among officials in the House of Commons fees office, and staff expressed frustration that there appeared to be nothing they could do to stop her.

During a protracted exchange of emails between officials, one senior member of the fees office wrote: "The size of the claim and the timing of the change to her nomination were discussed with [redacted] but we were agreed despite appearing to be against the spirit of allowances there was nothing with regards to the rules that we could pull the claim on."

During the period covered by the expenses claims published this week, Miss Moran first declared her second home as a flat in Westminster, a short walk from the House of Commons, where she installed a £4,756.40 new kitchen, fitted a £2,678 carpet and bought a bed worth £527.20. The following year, after she had the garden in her constituency home in Luton redone, at a cost of £2,350, she wrote to the fees office asking to switch her designation there. Her note, in which she wrote "It has just come to my attention that these costs may be eligible under ACA – hence just being submitted" appear to confirm suspicions that MPs have been informally advising each other how to make the most of the allowances system. In Luton, she spent £1,823.09 on bathroom repairs and £212.50 on bedding, along with £200 of food, before apparently embarking on regular shopping trips to buy items ranging from Pollyfilla to wallpaper, paint and fitted bedroom units costing £1,207.50.

She also claimed £4,200 for decorators, and purchased three separate items of musical equipment, including a £699.95 music system. The extensive work to the home in Southampton, which Mr Booker bought in 1988, two decades before his wife's name was added to the mortgage documents, came to just £1,722 less than the maximum allowable, and she did not make any other claims for the whole of the year.
Miss Moran failed to comment due to feeding at the slops tray....

Here is a thought if you claim benefits and get caught working, you can go to court as well as losing benefits and subject to the courts decision may have to pay back benefits previously claimed. You also face a criminal record and possible time in jail.

However if you are an MP....

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