Anti-Assembly MPs milk the expenses

Of the 40 MPs from Wales, only a tiny handful have failed to milk the parliamentary expenses system for every penny they could get.

Only two of them – stand up and be honoured, Julie Morgan, Cardiff North, and Alan Williams, Swansea West – have put in claims which were substantially below the £20,000-odd a year they could claim for second homes in London.

In a four-year run of claims published in the Independent on Sunday this week, Mrs Morgan, the wife of the First Minister, hardly ever reached even £10,000-a-year.

Now, it is true that her husband would have smelled the row which was brewing – as did Presiding Officer Lord Elis-Thomas, hence the crack-down which has been under way in Cardiff for a full year or more.

But Mrs Morgan has been “clean” since the year 2004-5.

Even “cleaner” has been Mr Williams, who only once even managed to reach £7,000.

I haven’t checked how in detail the second-home rules operate.

But it’s amazing how the vast majority of MPs claim almost identical allowances.

And I don’t think we can blame only the political parties for what has been happening. For Dai Davies, the Blaenau Gwent Independent, rocketed upwards to reach the maximum almost immediately after his election.

As Labour MPs would never have given him the information, it smells to me that Commons officials must have the voice behind the claims.

A third Labour MP – Nick Ainger, Carmarthen West and South Pembs – also lags badly. Although it must be admitted that his claims are edging up towards the near-identical figure almost everyone else achieves.

Kevin Brennan (Labour, Cardiff West) also lagged badly – with figures between £11,000 and £15,000. But he blotted his copy-book, according presumably to the Daily Telegraph, by having a series of purchases delivered to his Cardiff home while charging them to his second home in London.

Policeman’s son Elfyn Llwyd (Plaid Cymru, Meirionnydd Nant Conwy) kept pretty clean with claims of between 13K and 16K.

But no political party smells beautiful. Some MPs were just damned cheeky. You can guess that Lembit Opik (Lib Dem, Montgomery) was one of that group. In earlier years he kept his claims low.

But one year he omitted to pay a council tax demand in time. He received a summons to court. So he charged the £40 for the summons to his second home account. It’s not clear whether his claim was paid, although it’s not said it wasn’t.

One of the worst cases listed is that of Stephen Crabb, Conservative Preseli. No wonder he wants to retain all political power in Westminster when he can claim a monster £9,300 stamp duty after buying a new home in Wales. And he also sold a home in London at a profit after receiving £8,000 from the taxpayer for refurbishments.

There is no mention that he paid a penny of his profit back to the Commons. But making money from home swaps has been part of the game in the English capital for quite some time by everyone, never mind MPs.

Another anti-Assembly MP is also named as playing a money-game to his own advantage, and the taxpayer’s loss. Don Touhig, Labour, Islwyn, is said to have spent “thousands of pounds” redecorating his constituency home (paid for, we hope, purely by English taxpayers), before switching the annual second-home allowance to a flat in London.

Surely, bearing in mind what we now know about the morals of our “masters” in the Imperial capital, the referendum of extra – surely, full – powers for Cardiff MUST be held at once.

Unfortunately, it’s this gang in London which has to pass the necessary legislation.

And some people call it the Mother of Parliaments.  More likely the Whore of Parliaments.  And to think they believe they know what is good for Wales…..