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Stewart Jackson MP: on the issue of MPs expenses
Peterborough MP Stewart Jackson has written his regular column for the Evening Telegraph. Normally published on Fridays, we have included it in today's paper because of its relevance to the expenses debate.
Peterborough MP Stewart Jackson has written his regular column for the Evening Telegraph. Normally published on Fridays, we have included it in today's paper because of its relevance to the expenses debate.Few of you will have escaped the fact that earlier this week I found myself caught up in the controversy surrounding MP's second home allowances.
I was taken to task over a 304.10 bill for maintenance of a swimming pool in my garden.
Here's an explanation; not a justification or a defence, but a straightforward explanation.
Make of it what you will. I don't see the need to patronise you with mealy-mouthed platitudes, and some may take offence at the straightforward tone, but it's an honest from-the-heart account.
What do you think?
Email your comment: eteditor@ peterboroughtoday.co.uk or use our online Your Say form: write us a letter now.
See also:
Stewart Jackson MP: 'I am not a thief... my wife and I have been vilified'.
Stewart Jackson: ET questions will not be answered.
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For the record, I believe wholeheartedly in the Freedom of Information Act and I have published details of how my second home allowance is spent since last July. I have never, ever profited from any claims made to run the constituency home.
After my election in May 2005 I started to look for a family home. Up until then I had lived in rented house in Bretton with my wife and baby. First we shared the house with the landlady, and after she moved out we shared it with two lodgers who took the other bedrooms. We slept three to a room with Isabel in a basket on the floor. As a family we wanted to commit to the City and have a proper family home we could use for constituency events, charity fundraisers, meetings and entertaining. And give my daughter a bedroom of her own. All of the above now happens regularly in the house. We are there Thursday or Fridays through Sundays or Mondays each week, and pretty much full time when Parliament is not sitting, including summer and Christmas. Sometimes I'm there mid-week when Parliament is sitting if there's constituency business which is more important.
I raised the money for the deposit and stamp duty and moved in to the Peterborough house at the end of 2005.
The Additional Costs Allowance, as it was called then, was set up so ordinary, normal people like me, who have nothing but what they earn behind them, could stand for Parliament. If there was no help to pay the bills for a second home in the constituency, individuals like me, with no trust funds, private income or successful businesses to support them would not be able to enter politics. That's a fact.
The vast bulk of my claims in 2005/06 were for one-off costs involved in the setting up of a constituency base. There was a claim for professional fees, household start-up items like bedding, pans, cutlery and dishes. I also bought a bed, some carpet and a second-hand fridge.
There were no claims for TV's, we were given an old one, there were no claims for expensive music systems, I bought one from a charity shop. There are no claims for new furniture, our former Bretton landlady very kindly donated her sofas and a coffee table. And there have never been any claims for food.
This isn't a bleeding heart story. I'm not expecting, and neither do I want your sympathy. These are just facts. Neither Sarah or myself are extravagant people who have no idea of what's going on in the real world. It wasn't my money I was spending - it was yours - and I was, and am, always mindful of that.
As for the pool. It was a one-off bill made three years ago, never claimed again, and since paid back. I have also made a sincere apology. I clean the pool myself or pay out of my own pocket to have it done, if I can't.
Since those initial moving in costs four years ago, 99 per cent of the allowance goes on the basics like mortgage interest, utilities and council tax. The other one per cent has paid for extra security lights and gate.
It goes without saying that I will abide by any decision made by David Cameron or the Sir Christopher Kelly review regarding the overhaul of the allowance system. Regardless of any outcome, I can tell you that I'm an honest man, I haven't been feathering my nest, neither, to be fair, have the majority of MP's. Despite what you read in the papers.
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