An MP has been forced to quit after ethics watchdogs caught her splurging over £7,000 on clothes and lingerie… and claiming it all on parliamentary expenses. Coralie Dubost, who even billed the taxpayer for £420 of French designer underwear, claimed she had “been targeted by unfair attacks“, and her staff had actually “misled” her over which clothing items were acceptable to expense. She also splashed the cash on hotels, trips, and food which, according to the watchdog report, had nothing to do with her public duties…

Despite insisting the media had their knickers in a twist and the whole affair had been organised by a “cabal“, Dubost announced she was standing down in the face of stiff resistance:

“The time has come for me to withdraw from political life and devote myself to my family. I will not be a candidate for re-election… I have been targeted by unfair attacks, which do a disservice to my political group, to electoral deadlines and to democracy. I am not a cheat. There are parliamentary outfits and personal outfits. I do not wear the same clothes in my personal and MP’s life.”

The evidence against Dubost, a parliamentary representative for Macron’s party, arrived last year, yet it somehow  remained secret until this week. If a scandal like this had happened in the UK, Dubost would’ve been out the door in days. She only got away with for this long because, as a French MP, she was able to exploit the loose controls over the country’s parliamentary allowance system. Sacré bleu…