MPs' expenses claims confirmed (From Salisbury Journal)
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MPs' expenses claims confirmed
12:37pm Monday 25th July 2011 in News By Annie Riddle
SALISBURY’S MP John Glen claimed £122,773 in expenses in the year 2010-11.
His constituency office and staffing expenses totalled £102,266, according to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.
He claimed £16,124 for accommodation and £4,382 for travel.
The figure for accommodation covers the rent on a two-bedroom flat in Westminster. Until June Mr Glen rented a one-bed flat in Kennington but he told the Journal that because he has two stepchildren he has since been allowed two bedrooms.
The MP has a mortgage on another flat in London, but Parliamentary rules do not allow him to use that and claim for his mortgage, so he rents it out.
His wife Emma and two stepchildren, William and Emily, are still living in Wallingford, Oxfordshire but will be moving to Salisbury next summer when 12-year-old William finishes prep school, to minimise disruption to the family.
Mr Glen said: “At that point I will definitely be moving to Salisbury and the children will both be educated locally.”
At present when he is in the constituency, he said, he tends to stay with friends or sleeps in his office. “Initially I did rent a house in Gigant Street, but I couldn’t afford to keep that going.”
He said he has driven 28,000 miles in the past 15 months, shuttling between Salisbury and Oxfordshire, to make sure he fulfils his obligations to his constituents and his family. “I don’t think anyone who has seen my commitment will think I have sold Salisbury short,” he said.
Dr Andrew Murrison, the South West Wiltshire MP, claimed a total of £76,003. That included £71,398 for constituency office and staffing expenses, £1,671 for accommodation and £2,933 for travel.
Claire Perry, the Devizes MP whose constituency includes Tidworth and Ludgershall, claimed £104,987. She claimed nothing for accommodation but £103,814 for her constituency office and staffing and £1,173 for travel.
Comments(16)
DebMallett
says...
3:50pm Mon 25 Jul 11
Yes, he has been a good MP so far but can he, based in Oxfordshire, really appreciate our local issues. And according to his Twitter account, he spends much time in Salisbury market on Saturdays... when he is meant to be taking his children to various events....in Oxfordshire.
hillyanne
says...
7:54pm Mon 25 Jul 11
How odd!
Cazzkins
says...
4:49am Tue 26 Jul 11
What shocks me are the Parliamentary rules mentioned in the article. If John already owns a flat in London, surely he should be living there when he needs to be in London and living in Salisbury at other times? The rent for a flat in Salisbury should be what he claims for if he currently chooses not to uproot his family from Oxford and I imagine that would cost considerably less than the cost of a two bedroom flat in Westminster! After all the furore of MPs expenses, one would hope that each MP would be looking to minimise their expense claims and, given the increased travel costs that John is incurring at present by choice, I would prefer that he does not incur increased accommodation expenses too, especially when this does not appear to be necessary.
If Parliamentary rules have forced this situation, then they clearly need to be reviewed, especially since they appear to be forcing our MP to be 'sofa-surfing' when he is in his constituency!
Grampie
says...
11:28am Tue 26 Jul 11
hillyanne wrote:He certainly trumpeted the fact that he had moved into Salisbury. Can't find the article, but he did say that he had found a house in Gigant Street http://www.johnglenm
I'm amazed to read this.After all his talk of being local , I assumed(as I'm sure lots of waverers who eventually voted for him did)that he would be living here in Salisbury;or at least in the area -as I thought our M P should do.
How odd!
p.com/out-and-about/
out-and-about/found-
salisbury-home/141
In another post dated 4th February 2010 http://www.johnglenm
p.com/out-and-about/
out-and-about/proper
ty-hunt-begins/131 he wrote that his opponents criticised him for not living in the constituency sixteen months later he has still not moved into the Salisbury area.
I am not surprised that he couldn't find a place to rent on his wages. According to the UK parliament website "The current annual salary for an MP is £65,738. In addition, MPs receive allowances to cover the costs of running an office and employing staff, having somewhere to live in London and in their constituency, and travelling between Parliament and their constituency."
So he has a house in Oxford, and is buying a flat in London, which he now gets an income from and then charges us for staying in London. So his income is over £65,738 and he should get expenses for living in his constituency and he cannot find a home/flat in Salisbury on that income. How does he think people with less income than that expect to live in Salisbury?
It isn't very green to keep driving back and forth to Oxford, why doesn't he set an example by using public transport? He would not need to travel to meetings in the city centre, he could walk and for visits in the outlying villages he could catch a bus.
It sounds like he is struggling to do this job.
Grampie
says...
12:44pm Tue 26 Jul 11
"SALISBURY MP CANNOT AFFORD TO LIVE IN SALISBURY" He has too many homes elsewhere. "I blame the immigrants" said the local EDL representative. "If they weren't here, John could find a nice cheap flat in Bouverie Avenue South"
SWSS14
says...
7:58pm Tue 26 Jul 11
rantone
says...
8:52pm Tue 26 Jul 11
SWSS14
says...
10:19pm Tue 26 Jul 11
tary-standards.org.u
k/Results.aspx?Optio
n=1
Grampie
says...
10:39pm Tue 26 Jul 11
karlmarx
says...
12:54pm Wed 27 Jul 11
If he does decide to live in Salisbury then he can join me on my cycle ride home from work at 2.30 in the morning. What he would see in the city should make his blood run cold. Drunks fighting in the streets, homeless people sleeping rough in shop doorways, litter strewn everywhere, pools of vomit, police cars, ambulances and taxi cabs tearing around at breakneck speeds.
Stay in Oxfordshire where you belong, you don't know even half of what's going on here.
DebMallett
says...
3:57pm Wed 27 Jul 11
If anyone would like to see his email, I will forward it directly to you. I have his permission to do this. My email address is: debbie.mallett@crugr
oup.com
Grampie
says...
6:50pm Wed 27 Jul 11
At least he was in Salisbury today trying to explain why two illegal immigrants were working on the Plain. Supplied by a private company apparently.
I suppose there must be some cheap accommodation going now. If an illegal immigrant can afford to live in the area, why can't our MP?
SWSS14
says...
8:00pm Wed 27 Jul 11
Grampie
says...
6:18pm Thu 28 Jul 11
Despite their so called attempts to display charitable work, they are hypocrites.
The Trussell Trust should not accept money from this organisation.
I looked up SWSS and found http://www.swss.net.
au/index.html or this http://www.swss.ws/N
ewsletter/2010_May.p
df (The Southern Weed Science Society), Also the South Wales Socialist Society but most worryingly http://clan-swss.com
/fpw.php The Waffen SS game
karlmarx
says...
6:29pm Sat 30 Jul 11
As follows: "George Osborne has said that our plans to cut the deficit must be based on the belief that we are all in this together - and he means it."
Judging by the claims put in by you and your fellow Tory encumbents this isn't the case. It would appear that some of us 'are all in this together' while others are having the time of their lives milking the system.
Amidst the 'austerity' measures forced onto the weak and vulnerable in our society (to pay for the mistakes and failed gambles of the rich and powerful) these 'expenses' claims are nothing short of obscene.
Do the honourable thing now and resign. After one year under your control Salisbury has decended to new depths of depravity, decay and despair. Go!
says...