McNulty's spin makes it worse
The news that has come out today that Tony McNulty has been claiming a second home allowance of around £14,000 per year for occasional use of his parents house 8 miles or so from his own house is another shocking example of how politicians are fleecing the tax payer.
There can be no excuse for this sort of behaviour. McNulty has been at pains to insist that he has not broken any rules. I am sure he is correct but in that case the rules are absolutely rotten.
He has already launched a pre-emptive strike on the criticism he obviously knew he was going to get by firstly explaining that he has stopped claiming the allowance (as of January this year) and secondly that he thinks the rules should be overhauled so that the second home claim can only be made if an MP lives at least 60 miles from Westminster.
Mr McNulty obviously thinks that this is politically very clever attempting to neutralise any attacks on him and trying to show himself on the morally correct side. However in my view this makes it even worse. Either he has just changed his mind in the light of the problems that other senior politicians in similar situations have encountered in which case it calls into question his previous judgement and his statements are just spin or, if he has thought this for a long time then it shows that he knew that what he was doing was morally wrong but he continued to do it for many years anyway.
He is a clever politician but he is being too clever by half here. If he thinks that what he has done is wrong and this Damascene conversion is for real then he should pay back the £60,000 he has claimed for this over the last few years.
Us hard pressed tax payers could do with the money.
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4 comments:
Tony McNulty is a joke! He has failed to live up to the spirit of the rules and taken every opportunity to manipulate the system to his advantage. God help us for having such public servants who are NOT squeaky clean. Tony McNulty is hardly ever at Harrow East surgeries, takes anywhere between 3- 6 months to give appointments to meet constituents and then either fails to turn up or cancels appointments with very little notice. This bloke doesn't use his parent's Harrow Residence for Parliamentary duties. Shame on you Tony for not saying sorry and for NOT returning the money you have unjustly over-claimed - it's people like you that bring this country to it's economic knees. Very very bad judgment on your part!
Tony McNulty is no better than Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe - and to think Britain has a better political system than Zimbabwe - Tony McNulty has proved us wrong! That's right, milk the UK for all it's worth while mismanging the economy and pretending to set policy on Employment! Remember Tony, "Employment" means you have to earn it - not wangle it!
Employment Minister teaches country how to Fiddle Expenses to the detriment of Employer and country
How very unfair. I'm sure he paid every penny over to his poor white haired Ma and Pa who will have declared the extra income to the Inland Revenue. Just like Jacquie Smith's very generous support of her sister. It's surely right that the relatives of ministers should be kept at public expense. Who on earth could argue with that?
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