MPs EXPENSES: 'MPs must do the right thing'
Ed Balls, Normanton MP and secretary of state for children, schools and families, claimed just more than £1,200 on an average month for mortgage interest, food, utilities, council tax, phone calls, cleaning and an alarm contract for 2005/2006.
Since 2007 he has claimed nothing more than just over 1,000 per month in mortgage interest, because he said he and his wife, Yvette Cooper (MP for Pontefract and Castleford), whose claims mirror his, wanted to reduce the amount they were claiming even further.
In an interview with the Express on Wednesday Mr Balls said: "Since being elected in 2005, I have never claimed for any furnishings or household items and certainly not for bizarre things like moats or chandeliers.
"I voted for full transparency of this system in the Commons last year. The public have a right to know how taxpayers' money is being spent, which is why the Express was given access to our ACA claims."
Mr Balls said the couple had always claimed much less than the 24,000 a year each they were entitled to. Their expenses showed they claimed less than 27,300 a year between them from 2005 to 2007 and just less than 24,500 in 2007/8.
But they did receive a slap on the wrist in 2006, when a claim for 1,298.17 in mortgage interest was made instead of 733, which Mr Balls said was down to nothing more than an office error.
He added: "A mistake was made and it was picked up on and corrected. No money was wrongly claimed."
He also defended the couple's controversial claims of 500 per month for food, saying they had not claimed since 2007 and that when they did, they never claimed the full 400 each that they were entitled to.
Mr Balls criticised fellow MPs who had hit the headlines over the issue and were protesting their innocence by saying they 'had followed the rules'.
He said: "Any member of parliament saying they kept to the rules is saying something that is out of touch with public opinion. Within the rules, we could've claimed twice as much but we chose not to. It is not about sticking to the rules, you have to do the right thing."
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Wakefield
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Heavy snow
Temperature: -1 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 2 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: West
