Oink oink

So many "snouts in the trough" stories this weekend but one that struck me was that:

"Mohammed Sarwar claimed interest on mortgage paid from Swiss bank account
A multi-millionaire Labour backbencher claimed almost £100,000 to cover mortgage interest that he paid from an account with a Swiss bank.

Mohammad Sarwar, the MP for Glasgow Central, who has an estimated fortune of £16 million, has claimed close to the maximum under his second homes allowance since 2004.

He claimed almost £2,000 every month for the interest on his mortgage on a £600,000 apartment in an exclusive block in Vauxhall, south London, just over the river from the Houses of Parliament.

Mr Sarwar, the chairman of the Scottish Affairs Select Committee, also claimed more than £3,000 for ground rent and service charges every year as well as around £1,500 for council tax and hundreds of pounds for home phone bills that included calls to Pakistan.

Mr Sarwar claimed a total of £174,882 in expenses last year but turned up for only 55 per cent of votes, spoke in only nine debates and asked 55 parliamentary questions.

Since 2004 he has claimed a total of £86,497 in second homes allowance (Additional Costs Allowance) and a total of £638,640 in other expenses, including office and staff costs.

In June 2006 the Parliamentary Fees Office wrote to Mr Sarwar to ask for repayment of £580.39 after an audit of his claims discovered that he had submitted some claims twice – and therefore had been reimbursed twice.

His mortgage is paid from a UK branch of the Swiss-based Habib Bank AG Zurich."