"Politicians are milking their transport allowances by claiming largely unverified mileage which would take some of them around the world.
They received £1.9million in petrol money alone in 2007-08, as well as £2.2million on train tickets and nearly £900,000 on air fares. "
I am a Londoner so here are just two examples of London Labour MP's claims:
"Labour MP Rudi Vis received £5,292 for driving about 15,000 miles even though his Finchley and Golders Green constituency is just nine miles north of Westminster."
"Stephen Pound (Labour) Distance from Westminster: 11 miles. Amount claimed: £4,251. Total miles said to have been covered: 11,004. Said he drove between his constituency and Westminster two or three times a day to 'get out and about'."
Let's take an average of 10 miles per one way trip for these two North/West London MPs which makes 20 miles a round journey for these Honourable Members. Now the House of Commons itself says that the House of Commons sat for 165 days in the 2007/08 session but let's be generous and assume that not only did these two MPs attend every sitting day they also went to the Palace of Westminster for other important Commons business on another 35 days (that's almost three days a month), thus making a nice round total of 200 travelling to Westminster. Now 200 days at 20 miles a round trip makes 4,000 miles. So why the claims for 15,000 and 11,004 miles?
Could Stephen Pound please substantiate his claim of travelling two or three times a day to the Palace of Westminster? If he did do this regularly surely he would have diary entries to show he was frequently between his two places of work.
Completely coincidentally; I note that Stephen Pound voted 'Aye' in the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill, Clause 1, Exemption Of House Of Commons And House Of Lords back in 2007. In other words he was one of the 98 MPs who voted to keep their expense details secret.
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