It’s emerged that Jim McMahon has been pocketing a tidy £81,598 in allowances from Oldham Council. McMahon, who is Labour’s candidate in the upcoming by-election, receives a basic allowance of £9,239. He also is paid an additional £27,717 for being council leader and another £5,543 as a “combined authority payment”. On top of all this he gets a further allowance of £39,099 for chairing the Labour Group on the Local Government Association. Not bad indeed…

Should McMahon win the by-election in Oldham and cease to work for the council he’d be in line for a £7,000 pay cut to struggle on an MP’s £74,000 plus expenses. Hopefully the local café he owns will bring enough in to keep him in the manner to which he is accustomed…