It has all the makings of a Monty Python sketch — prim British lawmakers caught in a farce over expense claims for everything from X-rated movies to a bathtub plug.
But reality has come home to roost in the often absurd world of Her Majesty’s Government.
Friday’s leaked list of lawmaker expenses has leveled another blow to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s beleaguered government, which has been blamed for a litany of problems ranging from the Iraq war to the deepening recession.
According to the details published by the Daily Telegraph, Brown paid his brother Andrew more than £6,500 (US$9,800) in two years for a maid the two shared when Brown was Treasury chief. The newspaper declined to say how it had obtained expense claims from 13 ministers but promised to roll out more in the coming days.
Home Office Secretary Jacqui Smith expensed two X-rated movies her husband watched, which she later repaid. Housing Minister and former foreign secretary Margaret Beckett claimed £600 for hanging plant baskets. And former deputy prime minister John Prescott claimed £300 over two years to fix broken toilet seats.
The list could also prove damaging to the opposition Conservatives — one Tory member of parliament (MP) expensed fertilizer used on his country house garden while another put in for cans of cat food.
Other expenses, categorized only by political party, included toilet seats, horse manure, wine rack, rat poison, pool maintenance, piano tuning, a chocolate Santa and a pizza cutter.
“I know people will be angry and it looks very bad,” Minister Harriet Harman told the BBC. “We recognize that ... public confidence is dented and we want to restore respect for the House of Commons.”
The Telegraph offered more details in its edition yesterday, reporting that Tourism Minister Barbara Follett claimed more than £25,000 over a four-year period for security patrols, CCTV cameras and alarms outside her London home.
Rules governing British lawmaker expenses are laid out in the 66-page Green Book — a guide sent to every legislator. It sets limits on expense claims, such as a £25 cap on eating out when away from home and how much can be claimed toward a second home, usually a residence in London.
Lawmakers can claim annual expenses, including £24,000 toward running and paying for their second home, up to £90,000 pounds on staff, £21,000 on office costs and an unlimited amount on travel for parliamentary business.
Though the guidelines don’t ban any specific items, the rules say expenses should relate to parliamentary work and shouldn’t damage the parliament’s reputation.
“The rules are being stretched to the absolute limit in a way which is allowing MPs [members of parliament] to enhance their personal income,” said Alistair Graham, who was in charge of standards in the British parliament until 2007.
Figures released to parliament show that the 646 House of Commons legislators claimed £93 million in allowances and expenses last year.
“I’ve said [the system] is wrong and it should be amended,” Brown said. “We want to abolish the present system and replace it with something different and that’s why I made the proposals I did a few days ago.”
The public has complained that the expenses system is too generous, isn’t independently audited and follows rules drafted by the lawmakers themselves.
“There can be no greater proof of the need for urgent and wholesale reform of MP’s expenses than the fact that so many people at the top of government have been making such dubious claims,” said Matthew Elliott of the lobby group the TaxPayers’ Alliance.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw, who claimed housing taxes he’d never actually paid, explained his mistake in a handwritten note trying to correct the matter: “Accountancy does not appear to be my strongest suit.”
British lawmakers, who are paid £61,000 annually, had long refused to offer itemized receipts for their claims on public money, until a ruling under freedom of information laws ordered them to make the details known.
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