Andrew Dismore MP and further expense row

Dear readers,

Further to my yesterdays posting regarding this subject, you might also be interested to know that Mr Andrew Dismore Labour MP is also the London’s most expensive MP who drew £147,650 in expenses last year on top of his salary of £54,725. Nevertheless his attendance record is pretty poor, despite being a London MP he manages to come in the bottom half of attendees, missing a third of all votes. The 35 minute journey on the Tube would cost £20 a week if he came in every day – which he clearly doesn’t – so for the period parliament sits it would cost around £700 – yet his travel expenses are £4,959. Mr Dismore, the MP for Hendon, north-west London, claimed £2,144 for mileage in 2007-08. MPs can claim 40p a mile for travelling to and from Westminster and around their constituencies.

This meant that Mr Dismore claimed for 5,360 miles — the equivalent of 487 journeys between Parliament and his constituency home 11 miles away in Burnt Oak. During that year the Commons sat for 145 days. Since 2001, the MP, who has consistently opposed reforms to the MPs’ expenses system, has claimed more than £30,000 in travel allowances — far more than his neighbouring MPs.

The London Evening Standard says the Labour member for Hendon pushed up his total by spending £38,755 on stationery and postage – six times more than most colleagues – equivalent to the cost of 133,320 second class stamps, or about 800 letters every day the Commons was sitting – two per year to each of his north London constituents.

From: Deepak