£1,000 a month cost of leaving a message

The recent furore over the expenses claimed by MPs now seems to be fading in the media, although I am sure the public, by and large, will not forget when the time comes to vote.

Recently Bill Cash, the MP for the Stone constituency which covers Cheadle and a large area of the South Moorlands, was seen squirming on TV trying to explain why we should not be upset about how he paid £15,000 to his own daughter to rent her flat in London, when he allowed his son to stay rent free in his own flat.

I know there will be those who say he has paid it back now and that should be the end of it, but I know many who feel this only compounds the error of a man who should have known better.

Recently the publication of detailed expenses, although blacked out in much of their detail did show some interesting expenses by Mr Cash.

An interesting detail to emerge from these receipts is in connection with his use of the Stone and District Conservative Association Office.

On many occasions I have complained about the fact that Mr Cash does not have his own-staffed constituency office, to which members of the public, can have contact, report their concerns and have their problems dealt with while the MP is away (staying in clubs and hotels in London).

Most, if not all, other MPs that I know, have such an office separate from the local political party office, and this is what takes up much of their expenses in running such an office and paying staff.

A far as I am aware, the Stone office is simply a place to leave a telephone message. No email, no fax. There is no supporting staff employed by Mr Cash located here. However an examination of his receipts show that he pays each month a sum of £1,000 for this service, listed as office and secretarial support. This may sound reasonable, but are the 70,000 or so constituents and the taxpayers in general, really getting value for money – I doubt it.

And if you think £1,000 per month is reasonable, this is £12,000 per annum, and for the 12 years since 1997 that Bill Cash has been handing this money over to his fellow Tories, we are talking about nearly £150,000.

A nice little earner for the local Conservative Association – no jumble sales for them to raise funds. Ever likely they keep adopting him as their candidate.

However all this and other details about MPs' expenses, is likely to be dwarfed by the revelations of outside earnings of those MPs who continue to claim remuneration for other jobs outside what they are paid to do as an MP. This will be a real eye opener.

Next time you meet your MP (a rare event in our part of the world in the Cheadle area), ask him/her what other paid jobs/directorships/paid advisory and consultancy work they do in addition to being an MP.

John Palfreyman, Tean