CLEANING, COUNCIL TAX, MORTGAGES AND PIES...

More fun and games were revealed yesterday as Parliament exposed Salford MPs' expense claims for `Personal Additional Accommodation Expenditure'…

Perhaps knowing that Parliament was going to publish MPs' claims in July 2009, all three of our MPs were on their best financial behaviour during the 2008/9 claims year – there were no Hazel receipts for £200 bath towels or two tvs, although Barbara Keeley did claim £139.50 for a tv licence. Not that she's got any chance of seeing herself on there, she's so anonymous…

Here's what they did claim…

COUNCIL TAX

Has Hazel got divorced? The records reveal that on her second home in London, Hazel claimed a `single person discount' of 25% on her Council Tax. However, Barbara Keeley, who's also married, merely claimed a 10% `Second Home' discount, and Ian Stewart didn't claim at all for Council Tax. Has the personal strain on Hazel led to a parting with her partner – or is it merely a clever ruse to save us tax payers some money, as we pick up the bill?

WHO ATE ALL THE PIES?

No contest here. Roll forward, Ian Stewart, who claimed the full £400 food allowance every month throughout the year – including during the summer recess when Parliament isn't even sitting. Apart from his mortgage, that's all he did claim for the year. Which conjures up a sad image of Ian sat in his London flat stuffing pies, while Babs, who didn't claim for any food at all, lies on her couch chewing her nails, watching tv and waiting in vain to see herself on screen. 

Meanwhile, Hazel comes second in the pie eating contest, claiming £200 a month for food until November 2008, including during the summer recess when Parliament isn't even sitting. In December the food claim jumps to £300 a month to February '09, and then no food at all for the next two months. It was in February that the Daily Telegraph exposed the full extent of Hazel's expense claims including those Kit Kats – probably put her off…
 
CLEANING

Neither Barbara nor Ian claimed anything at all for cleaning but Hazel tries to claim three lots of £120 a month for April, May and June '08. Parliament's Assistant Validation Officer writes Hazel a letter explaining that if she can't produce receipts "the department will not be able to reimburse you".

According to the records on view, no receipt is ever produced and no further cleaning claims are made until December '08 when the bill suddenly drops to £80 a month. 

THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MORTGAGE PAYMENT

While Ian Stewart's property payments remain the same all year, and Barbara Keeley's mortgage payments merely vary by a couple of hundred pounds, Hazel's second home payments on the balance of her £285,867.36 mortgage (Oct 2008) absolutely plummet from a high of £1287 a month in April '08, down to £1122 in October as interest rates get cut, to payments of £525 in January '09, £406 in February '09, £287 in March '09 and a mere £167 in April '09.

Perhaps someone can explain this but £167 monthly interest payment on a £285,000 mortgage? Is this the best mortgage in the world or has Hazel virtually paid it off from the same money well where she found that cheque for £13,000 for the tax man? None of our business, of course, but fascinating… Although between 2004 and 2008 Hazel did claim a total of £51,523 on mortgage payments (and a bit on hotels) for various homes.

Back in October this year, the Salford Star exclusively revealed how Hazel explained her previous excessive Parliamentary expenses to the Labour Party re-selection meeting at the Civic Centre in Swinton, where she fought for her political life…

"When I first went into Parliament I was told by existing MPs `These are the expenses, basically divide it by twelve and that's what you claim every month'…That's what was the established culture. And that was wrong…It did develop into that culture of entitlement rather than what was needed in order to do your job...

She added: "It enabled you to claim things that are utterly bizarre and that no reasonable rational person would have agreed to pay for…"

Now that the public can see those bizarre claims, Salford's MPs are financially behaving themselves…

So, for old time's sake, here's a lovely game we've found on the net where you can throw pies at Hazel in the House of Commons…just click here and then click on Hazel…

Details of all Salford MPs expenses here

Who should take on Hazel at the General Election? Click here to vote!

More Salford Star stuff on Hazel's expenses here...