The Zohan

Brilliant
The Prime Minister has his snout in the trough as well, what hope or example for the rest of the MP's

I hope this is the final nail in his coffin and time for an election!

MPs' expenses: Telegraph reveals Gordon Brown's payments to brother - Telegraph

Gordon Brown paid Andrew Brown more than £6,000 for "cleaning services" over the course of two years, and reclaimed the money from the taxpayer. He insisted tonight he had done nothing wrong.

The Prime Minister also claimed twice for the same £153 plumber's bill - money which he paid back today after the Telegraph pointed out the discrepancy to Downing Street.

DJ_Jon

iTrader: (7)

Expences or Expenses?

They are all doing it, Brown is no different to any other politician. They decide their saleries & expense amounts & if they don't like the rules, they change them.

Its all a massive joke, except it isn't funny, just expensive!

FlightMan

This is what comes from a Parliament that has no concept of having a "proper" job in the private sector.

At any other business in the UK, this would result in the sack.

Politics is heading down a dangerous road, and ultimately this country will suffer for the actions of these self serving fools. And I include all the parties in that. Anyone that thinks this is just confined to Labour is deluded, as I'm sure subsequent editions of the Telegraph will show.

dpb

I think its resaonable theyre now forced to account for stuff - id be pretty sure its all small beer compared to their fore fathers misdoings tho

StickyMicky

6k over 2 years for cleaning services ?

what is so wrong about that,

a cleaner on min wage must earn about 8k per year?
personally i can not see the problem with it

3k per year to have somebody clean his stuff, its loose change in the grand scheme of things, i hate all the politics bollocks as much as the next man, but are we supposed to believe that the PM has to clean his own house/kegs/****, while running the country ??

Lee247

It might be that they are milking this Country for all they can get. Whilst the rest of us are being told to stop spending and pay more tax

MJW

They've all got their noses in the trough, not just labour. Check out some of the crap they've put receipts in for :

MPs' expenses A-Z - Telegraph

StickyMicky

But loads of "busy" people pay cleaners to do "cleaning stuff" for them, as they have to much work to do in a day.

If the PM was sitting on his fat **** all day eating chocolate and throwing the wrappers on the floor then i would agree its a cause for complaint, but i don't think he actually does that although it would be awesome to be in that position

i have no doubts that loads will abuse the "trough" i just think that the PM paying somebody to do some cleaning is one of them!

[-(o)-]

iTrader: (1)

Saw some of PM Qs last night (don't ask). His days are numbered - just depends if he steps down or calls an election...

Hammer man

iTrader: (25)

This is what they mean by getting yourself into the "brown stuff".???

Clarebabes

Yes, but WE don't pay for most busy people's cleaning bill, do we?

StickyMicky

Would you prefer him to pay for this out of his own pocket ?

what is the difference when you are paying his wages ?

Clarebabes

Because normal people have to pay for these things out of their own wages, even people like me who work in the public sector.... so why shouldn't he?

Simon K

Having a cleaner is cool, if your busy and need help then great. But I dont think thats the point.

In this situation, this item is more of a hidden salary to his brother. By using the system, he's managed to pay his brother £6K, but declared it as `cleaning`. Many of the MPs do this, put down jobs / task / roles that their family members do, pay them accordingly, but in truth are just pay outs.

This is the main issue with these expenses, its not the actual item, its more the how the MP's are paying for family, boosting salaries, by using the expenses system as an indirect salary increaser. If all these items were added up, then this would be a far more accurate indication of what the MP is on inregards to a salary. And would be tax accordingly.

So, on the one side the Gov is telling everyone to cut back, and like me, many contractors get checked for IR35 / taxes / accounts checked + questioned, when the govenment is clearing milking the system, iffy expensives. They bleat on about `being in the rules`, but after a few inspections, nothing is black or white, and the HMRC win cases on `grey items`.

The way I see it, many of these expenses are benefits in kind, cash pay outs and tax is being avoided, therefore criminal.

SBK

MJW

Clare I think your sarcasm detector might need replacing

The Zohan

Exactly, Brown is paid a wage, then on top of that he can claim his cleaning expenses - let him pay it out of his own salary and not have this as a perk paid for by the tax payer!

As for a cleaner being paid minimum wage, irrelvant, cleaners may clean several properties in the same day.
You are looking at tax payers paying £250.00 per month for cleaning browns house, surely anyone with any morals would pay for their own cleeaning.

Or to look at it another way - who elase get their cleaning paid for or claims it back?

It isn't just Brown but he if anyone should lead by example and do the right thing!

Clarebabes

Ooops, you never know with him though!

StickyMicky

OK, so he pays out from his own "wage" (the same wage you already pay for?)

he will just raise the wage a bit more to compensate ?

GC8WRX

The money was paid to his brother, who is on the board of edf energy, do you think he gets his pinny on after work to clean up after brown, no!

Its a 6k payout for sweet **** all!

This is whats wrong with our government, they made the very lax rules regarding expenses, then tried to keep them away from prying eyes cos they new they would be in a world of **** if the general public found out just how much these out of touch leeches take the **** with them, now they are all paying the controversial ones back, as if 180 for a pumber paid back will help!

Get the noses out the trough and actually run the country boys, and forget about this scorched earth policy you all have, stop trying to leave the country in as much a mess as possible for the tories, leave with a bit of dignity you bunch of *****!

unclebuck

Gordo McMadman the unelected and failed Prime Minister and his dumbassed brother Andy the Cleaner...

Success is clearly in the genes there then - You couldn't make it up.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Yes, but what will these 'people' vote for instead? Policiticans these days are all the same - greedy, self serving, short termist career politicians who are as bent as most of the population they represent.

The country has had it in my opinion.

GC8WRX

Agreed!

Get us out of europe, **** labour off, ban mp expenses (most of joe public would do the job for the salary alone), stop immigration and generally get our house in order!

StickyMicky

If that is true and he never did the cleaning work? then i fully agree that its wrong!

i don't know of his brother so i have no clue what he does, but....

as i said above, i`m sure he could just raise his wage to cover the costs of paying from his own pocket for pretty much anything >?

SunnySideUp

We are paying him £194,000 a year to run the country!!

I am willing to pay for his cleaner if he is happy to run things for me on such a low wage!

And, lets wait for the Tories list of expenses before we call for an election ..... remember that the Tories invented the words Corruption and Sleaze!

speedking

It appears to me that the Gordon Brown involvement has been blown out of proportion by the press. He and his brother shared a cleaner. Rather than both paying her part of the costs, GB gave the money to his brother, who then paid her the full amount.

Agree it should be taxed as a benefit in kind, and not paid as tax free expenses. Maybe the IR will hold an investigation </irony>

I hate having to scrabble around to find a petrol VAT receipt because I have had to make an unexpected work trip in my car and need to claim back £12.10. If only the Government would trust me then I might trust it.

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

They've all been quite cute though haven't they as they earn a "reasonable" salary then double / treble it with expenses claims which are tax free of course! Not worried about the 50% tax either are they ...

TX.

SunnySideUp

I really would not say that £194k is reasonable for the job of running the country, would you?

£1 million would be more like it.

Leslie

That is a ridiculous statement.

He has free accommodation and the use of a country house as well. Like all the other MP pikers of all parties incidentally, he get subsidised food and drink at the Commons and all those extra expenses are tax free of course. His basic salary is more than enough and he could easily pay his normal living expenses etc out of that. Why is he claiming living expenses when he is in free accommodation and he also has a swish bullet proof car to whisk him to the Commons on a Wednesday!

You can't even say that he is running the country anyway! What a way to "run a railway" I ask you! We need a lot more value for money rather than running this country down into the very depths.

Time for the grey suits I think.

Les

dsmith

Why should cleaning be a claimable expense ?

The Salaries for Ministers and MPs are too low. They should be more comparable to the private sector.....and so should the expenses process. Genuine receipted items that are justfiable to a truly independant body.

If I submitted the same expense twice - I wouldnt get a note from my accounts dept apologising for not spotting my errror....I'd get a P45 and escort off the premises for committing fraud.