"Two of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's closest allies in the U.K. Cabinet are under investigation by Parliament's standards watchdog after a complaint they abused allowances available to lawmakers to pay for their London home.
Parliamentary Standards Commissioner John Lyon's office confirmed that it has been investigating Children's Secretary Ed Balls and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Yvette Cooper since February.
Balls and Cooper, who a year ago became the first husband and wife to serve together in a British Cabinet, claim the cost of the mortgage on their London home from taxpayer funds, arguing that their main residence is in Yorkshire, northern England, where the pair represents adjoining electoral districts.
``The rules on which is a member of Parliament's main home are actually quite clear,'' Liberal Democrat lawmaker Nick Harvey told reporters in London today. ``It must be based on where they spend their time.''
As ministers, both Balls and Cooper have full-time jobs in London, and commute between their two homes. Between them, they claimed a total 31,974 pounds ($63,000) in the year through March 2007 under an allowance designed to cover the cost of living away from home, according to the House of Commons. The most an individual lawmaker can claim is just over 22,000 pounds."
Oddly the BBC have decided that whilst the Caroline Spelman story was hugely important and worthy of a Newsnight special report, a story about two current cabinet ministers is not even worth mentioning.
As I have said before in the BBC's eyes Tory sleaze is a major story and the person implicated must go. In contrast, Labour sleaze is just not possible and if proved is just inconvenient and any resignation must be accompanied by expressions of regret.
UPDATE:
The BBC are nore reporting the story here as the last of the "Other Top Stories" on the Politics page. Contrast that with the HEADLINE news that was the Caroline Spelman story.
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