Expenses exposé is ‘no scandal’ say North MPs

May 9 2009 by William Green, The Journal

NORTH MPs hit back last night amid the growing row over expenses after details of Cabinet ministers’ claims were leaked.

Politcians across the region spoke out to defend spending by their peers after The Daily Telegraph published details of expenses claimed by Cabinet members.

Among those to have his claims exposed was South Shields MP and Foreign Secretary David Miliband who, it emerged, spent up to £180 every three months on the garden of his constiuency home. Even his gardener ‘questioned’ the spending, when he wrote at the bottom of a receipt for £132.96 in April 2008: “Please let me know if you would like pots making up at front and back this year, given the relatively short time you’ll be here and their labour-intensive nature.”

Mark Walsh, secretary of the South Shields constituency Labour party, defended Mr Miliband, saying: “To be honest the home allowance needs to be reformed and everyone agrees on that.

“I don’t think what David has spent is particularly extortionate. He uses his home on a weekly basis. He spends most weekends here. He holds his surgery on a Friday and spends as much time as he can in the constituency.”

David Clelland, Labour MP for Tyne Bridge, said: “It just seems like parts of the press are having fun with this. That might be deserved for some. But it is bad for democracy that we can’t have a rational discussion about the issues.”

Government whip Helen Goodman, MP for Bishop Auckland, said: "The most remarkable thing about this is that there is no scandal in it."