Outrageous claims

The Telegraph have some more examples of MP's claims and a few caught my eye, remember "Claims must only be made for expenditure that it was necessary for a Member to incur to ensure that he or she could properly perform his or her parliamentary duties.": "£20 claimed every month for “cleaning products” by a Labour backbencher who never submitted receipts for them


£14,000 cost of a wet room claimed by a Northern-based Labour MP for his London flat


£8,000 worth of bookshelves bought at the taxpayers’ expense by a wealthy, outgoing Labour MP for his country manor house as part of his “winding up” expenses


24 silk-covered cushions bought by Keith Vaz for £484 in 2007


2 televisions claimed on the same receipt by a Northern Ireland MP at a total cost of £2,278 shortly after he was elected in 2005


3 beds bought in the space of nine months between October 2005 and June 2006 by a female Labour backbencher at a total cost of £1,917.94


£230.17 claimed for food by one home counties-based Tory backbencher in February 2007, the exact amount, to the penny, he had left available to him in allowances for that year


£700 claimed by a Midlands-based female Labour MP for a Laura Ashley armchair, reduced to £395 by the fees office because it exceeded the maximum allowed on the “John Lewis list”


£1,750 total cost of bedroom furniture delivered to the Yorkshire home of a Labour backbencher, who claimed it was actually for his London flat. Included a bed, mattress, wardrobe, two bedside tables and a combination chest
Could the location of this furniture now be checked maybe via an FOI enquiry or some covert action?



Petty claims:
23p for a lemon claimed by a northern-based Labour backbencher

26p for a wooden spoon claimed by female Labour backbencher

52p for jar of piccalilli claimed by veteran Labour backbencher

5 coat hangers bought by a female Conservative MP from Peter Jones, costing a total of £4

8 sachets of mulled wine claimed by a Conservative backbencher at a total cost of £3

93p cost of packet of iced gem biscuits claimed by Labour frontbencher



Disallowed but the sheer cheek of trying to claim:
£8,865 cost of Bang & Olufsen television which one of Labour’s most long-standing MPs tried to claim for, only to be told the maximum allowed was £750