MP admits £16,000 wrongly claimed

[wellinghall]

"Ex-minister Elliot Morley admits claiming for a paid-off mortgage but says it was a mistake and he has repaid some of the money."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/

some???

Comments

[bookwormsarah.livejournal.com]

Haven't read the article, but the only thing I can think of is because it is a large sum he is paying it back in installments?

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Joe Public would have a hard time persuading, say, the Inland Revenue (sorry, HMRC, I keep forgetting) to let them do that.

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

This seems to be the first time that the prime minister has expressed 'concern' about an MP's behaviour; perhaps Morley will be the official scapegoat. Neglect of one's affairs is no excuse for wrongdoing.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Things have obviously moved on over the past week, but -

The PM's comments on Hazel Blears yesterday (which I admit I haven't heard at first hand) seem to have been pretty ambiguous ... ?

[tree_and_leaf]

He'd better pay back the whole lot!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Too right!

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

And now an MP from the other side has resigned (presumably before Cameron sacked him). His wife is also an MP and they were both claiming second home allowance. And then there's the two Labour MPs who have been both been claiming the allowance on a house that one rents from the other.

Dear oh dear.

[thecatsamuel.livejournal.com]

He's been suspended now. This has totally knocked any remaining faith I had in politicians. How can you "not notice" your mortgage is paid off?!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

We have actually had similar discussions at work in the past, where (say) someone's direct debit has failed and they (say they) haven't noticed. Where it was for £5 a month, we generally believed them. Where it was for £500 a month, we didn't!

[arda-unmarred.livejournal.com]

listening to them, one would think that the great crime they committed was to get caught. That the whistleblower was the real criminal.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

That's one of the things that most pisses me off about the whole story.