North East peers defend their expenses claims

Dec 23 2009 by William Green, The Journal

Lord Redesdale, a frontbench peer until earlier this year, said: “If you are an active peer, you are expected to turn up all the time. My voting and speaking record has been amongst the best in Parliament.

“We have a problem with the system in one response. You have got people working on the frontbench flat out and probably not getting paid for it. But other people not doing so much are getting paid more than they deserve.” Tory Lord Bates, who took his seat in July last year, claimed a total of £32,587. He attended 69 Parliamentary days.

The overnight subsistence bill for the peer – who lives in County Durham – came to £11,285, while his daily allowance amounted to £5,788 and travel costs totaled £8,624.

Lord Bates said he “got” then outrage about Parliamentary expense and salaries, and revealed he stays at a Premier Inn hotel in London.

“I don’t think that there is anybody left in Westminster who isn’t aware of the anger that is felt by the public,” said the shadow minister. It has been a very torrid and absolutely turbulent time for the reputation of Parliament and Parliamentarians.”

But many people would understand why the claims made by North East peers appeared higher, he said.

“For those of us who live in the North East we clearly need to travel down to London, we need to have accommodation down in London because we don’t live in London,” he added.

And he warned the system needed to account for this, otherwise peers would become London-based and so lose the link with areas outside the capital.