The Parasites of Westminster Sneer at the Public

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The Parasites of Westminster Sneer at the Public
April 5, 2009 by BNP News

Free houses, no tax and homes purchased on the backs of ordinary taxpayers: this is how the parasitic Tory, Labour and Lib-Dem members of parliament sneer at the public as they literally steal millions from their voters.

The latest example of this morally corrupt gang is Labour MP Geoff Hoon. It turns out that he has claimed expenses on his constituency house and rented out his London home — while living in a third palatial grace-and-favour apartment in Whitehall.

Mr Hoon, the former defence minister who led Britain in the illegal and immoral £4.5 billion per year Iraq war, is now Transport Secretary in Gordon Brown’s Government.

New revelations show how he lived, rent-free, for three-and-a-half years in Admiralty House, London, while he was defence minister.

During this time, he used the opportunity to earn money from the London house he had declared to the Commons authorities as his “main home” by renting it to a private tenant via a commercial lettings agency.

As if this was not enough, he simultaneously claimed more than £70,000 in a “second-home allowance” on his home in Derby, close to his constituency of Ashfield, Nottinghamshire.

This meant that for over three years, Mr Hoon had one home absolutely free, a second one paid for by “Commons expenses,” (i.e. the taxpayer) and a third one which had initially been funded by the taxpayer and for which he was paid rent.

To make matters worse, when Mr Hoon finally gave up his free home in Admiralty House, he bought a new £635,000 London home and changed his “main home” declaration which meant he could use his second-home allowance to help pay for it - and provide a home for his adult son.

Of course Mr Hoon insists he has done nothing wrong. Strictly legally speaking, that may well be the case. But everyone else knows that Mr Hoon’s behaviour is, just like all the other cases recently uncovered, morally wrong and totally unjustified.

* It has also emerged that MPs avoid stamp duty on second and third homes by claiming it back on their parliamentary expenses, passing off yet more millions onto the taxpayers.

The stamp duties are claimed in addition to furnishings and mortgage interest payments for homes they are allowed to keep after leaving parliament.

Among MPs who claimed a stamp duty refund is Kevin Brennan, a Cabinet Office minister. He bought a flat in London in July 2007 and claimed back stamp duty of £10,200.

Theresa Villiers, the north London Tory MP and shadow transport minister, has also claimed her stamp duty. She bought a flat within walking distance of the Commons in January last year, in addition to a property in outer London, and was able to claim £10,350 in stamp duty on expenses.

* MPs are privileged among British taxpayers in being able to buy and furnish a second home without being taxed. The exception is contained in Section 292 of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 which declares that “no liability to income tax arises in respect of an overnight expenses allowance paid to a Member of the House of Commons in accordance with a resolution of that House.”

Normal employees who are provided with a second home by their company have to declare it as part of their income.

The privilege, which dates from the 1970s, means that MPs can claim up to £24,006 a year for their second homes under the Commons’ Additional Costs Allowance (ACA) without paying a penny in tax.

For Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who is at the centre of the storm over expenses, it means that she has avoided tax payable every year for “benefits in kind” of £44 on the £550 kitchen sink she installed, 7p on the 88p bath plug and 80p on the £10 worth of pay-per-view adult movies which she billed to the taxpayer.

* The British National Party undertakes to abolish this criminal system when it comes to power. Expenses will be properly controlled and no bending of the rules will be tolerated.

The voters of Britain have an opportunity to voice their disgust with the criminals in Westminster by voting BNP on June 4.

* As expected, the Mail on Sunday carried a report saying that Labour MP Harry Cohen faced a possible criminal investigation for fraud - but refused to say that it was the BNP’s spokesman on law and order, Mr Michael Barnbrook, who laid the complaint with the police.