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It has been revealed that an Enfield MP has claimed over £1 million in expenses.
The shocking amounts Enfield North Labour MP Joan Ryan received since 2002 were published by the Sunday Telegraph at the weekend. It highlighted how the she claimed council tax, and "flipped" her second home later claiming £1,888 to redecorate the living room of her house in Enfield. £4,500 was also spent on work for her Enfield home before she 'flipped' her designation to her south London apartment. Her claims contrast sharply with those of neighboring MP for Enfield Southgate David Burrowes, who has not claimed any expenses for a second home. Ryan, whose Enfield home is just 14 miles from Westminster, has now claimed over £140,000 on a second home, bringing her total expense claims to £1.15million.
£700 gardening services
Among other things claimed on expenses was £700 for gardening services, £45 for the cleaning of windows and £1.77 for pot pourri. According to the Sunday paper, her claim included £900 on new gutters and repairing her French doors, £1,888 on redecorating the living room, £246 on fixing a leaking shower, £462 on plasterboarding and skimming the dining room, and £55 on installing an outside socket. The furore over MPs' expenses comes two years after a Freedom of Information Act request for MPs' expenses to be made public - Ryan voted for MPs to be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. Conservative candidate Nick de Bois, who aims to replace Joan Ryan at the next election, said the affair had damaged politics "irrevocably".
Justification?
In her defence, Ryan claims that she re-designated her Enfield home back to her primary residence when she was sacked as a special envoy to Cyprus in September 2008. She has justified her designation of the Enfield constituency home prior to that because 'she was a member of the government' and required to live closer to the office as a main home. However, as a Special Envoy to Cyprus she was never a member of the government. She was sacked from the government in July 2007, and yet still claimed expenses on her Enfield. 54 outer London MPs will lose their Additional Costs Allowance next year after MPs voted last month to scrap the £24,000-a-year second-home payments for members representing constituencies within 20 miles of Parliament.
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