Simon Hoggart makes a very good point this morning, the MPs expense scandal is un-named.  “Expense-gate” somehow isn’t right.  Guido likes “The Troughalypse”, though that isn’t self-descriptive.  Maybe “Snoutgate”.  Suggestions in the comments welcome…

Essentially they nominated three different properties in two years to be their main residence.   We paid for their million pound property portfolio.  Plus a few of the usual “accidental” double claims.  We also pay £600 every month for their food bills.  Bear in mind these two troughers have a combined household income of some £300,000 from the taxpayer, yet  they still feel we need to pay their Waitrose bills.  Every little helps, eh?

Public service can be so so rewarding…

Hat-tip: The Telegraph.

The Shadow Climate Change Minister Greg Barker is doing a Blears – he says he doesn’t have to but he will anyway.  He is close (socially*) to the Cameron inner circle.  It seems that the closer you are to Cameron the whiter-than-white you have to be.

Julie Kirkbride seems to have got off lighter than her husband, yet she is equally guilty of over-claiming…

*Someone once told Guido (unkindly) that Barker’s closeness to the Cameroon inner circle was largely a result of his willingness to pick up the restaurant tab.

Guido has been contacted by constituency members from Andrew MacKay’s local Bracknell Conservative Association. To say they are livid is an understatement. They think he is in denial about his wrong doing and do not accept it was a mere error of judgement – they think it was blatant troughing.

ConservativeHome is polling grassroots feeling on the issue. If a majority of party loyalists give him the thumbs down it will signal real trouble. He may have no option but to consider “retirement”.

Andrew MacKay’s voting record on transparency issues is appalling – hardly surprising in the circumstances:

20 Apr 2007 Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill — Keep disclosure for MPs’ expenses —  absent
20 Apr 2007 Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill — Exempt only correspondence — absent
18 May 2007 Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill — absent
18 May 2007 Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill —  absent
18 May 2007 Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill —  absent
18 May 2007 Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill — absent
18 May 2007 Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill — absent
3 Jul 2008 MPs’ allowances — External audits and no more furniture — disagree
30 Apr 2009 MPs’ financial interests — absent

His constituents meet on Friday 22, May to decide his fate.

He has sent out a statement to Conservative Party members in his constituency:

Message from Andrew.
11 a.m.
15th May 2009

I wanted you to know immediately that this morning I resigned as David Cameron’s Senior Parliamentary and Political Adviser.

As you can imagine I have been working very closely with David over the expenses issue, and particularly his excellent tough stance, which has gained such approval this week.

Along with senior Shadow Cabinet members, I was among the first to submit my claims and receipts to internal Party examination. This morning, I was told that whilst I had acted on the advice of the Head of the Fees Office and been transparent in submitting annually my designated home and second home addresses, my arrangements would not necessarily pass David’s reasonableness test.

Consequently in a very early morning conversation with David, I submitted my resignation, which I thought was the right way forward.

I am sorry that we have all become embroiled in this expenses row, particularly as I was following advice. I am now traveling up to the Constituency to see as many of you as possible, and will of course be fulfilling engagements tomorrow and on Saturday, as well as campaigning for the European elections.

I have decided to call a public meeting in the Constituency on Friday, 22nd May, so that any constituents who have concerns can put them to me. I will let you have details as soon as this is arranged.

Andrew

UPDATE : According to numbers collected by Bloomberg, MacKay and his wife Julie Kirkbride have claimed £282,731 since 2001. So that is £141,000 worth of over-claiming. No wonder why Cameron sacked him at sunrise this morning. This is straight forward looting.

UPDATE 13.00 : He has referred himself to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner.  Unfortunately for him the Taxpayers’ Alliance has already referred his case to the police.

Sky reporting that Andrew MacKay has resigned as Cameron’s senior adviser over “unacceptable” expense claims.  Andrew MacKay was last seen having a run-in with the police over Damian Green.

UPDATE : MacKay is of course married to Julie Kirkbride MP.  So this could be double interesting…

UPDATE II : MacKay has just described the situation with his expense as an “anomaly” to Andrew Neil on the Daily Politics.  They are shameless.

On Tuesday Guido saw confirmation that the Metropolitan Police were preparing to make enquiries into MP’s expenses.  Separately the Serious Fraud Office was referring enquiries to the Committee on Public Standards – who as far as Guido knows do not have powers of arrest.

This situation is so bad that it seems clear to Guido that only prison sentences will satisfy the public.  Politicians have been operating a racket costing the taxpayers millions, stealing from the public purse on a scale that beggars belief.  Labour MP Elliot Morley now claims  he made a mistake.  Morley deliberately lied to the fees office to steal from the taxpayers – he expects us to believe that he forgot he (we) had paid off his mortgage and carried on claiming long afterwards.  That is unbelievable.  He is not the only one who should be prosecuted for theft and fraud.

UPDATE : The Prime Minister is “very concerned” about allegations Elliot Morley claimed £16,000 for a non-existent mortgage.

He has been troughing for years and employing his children as well.  The real pressure on him is coming from his local paper which has really got the measure of him.  Expect to see more local papers bringing pressure to bear on troughing incumbent MPs. The next general election may see the biggest turfing out of incumbent MPs for generations.

After Dave wowed even Brown nosers like Sir Michael White and Steve Richards with his crackdown on Tory grandees and shadow cabinet troughers, Harman wrote to the chairman of the Member’s Allowance Committee proposing that he should set out a procedure whereby MPs might perhaps be asked nicely to repay claims that were outside the rules. Possibly. Not exactly a decisive response from the government.

The Member’s Allowance Committee is chaired by the Labour MP Don Touhig.  It was he who  led the Labour backbench revolt last July that threw out proposals for a full external audit of MPs’ expenses and an end to the “John Lewis list”. Does that fill you full of confidence?

Harman’s proposal is that if an MP has broken the rules they will have to repay the money.   Guido’s view is that only the minimum expenses wholly necessary for the  job should be allowable, however the cry of every single troughing MP from every single party is that “it was all within the rules”.  So no one will have to pay anything back under Harman’s plan.