The latest installment in the British MP expense scandal, in which Members of Parliament have been revealed to have spent millions in “expenses” on things like having their moats cleaned, buying porn and/or tampons for their spouses, hiring private security guards, paying nonexistent mortgages, etc:
A Tory MP called Sir John Butterfill from Bournemouth West, Dorset used his expense account to add a servant’s wing to his country house. At first he denied that these people were servants, calling them his “gardener and his wife,” but later, he said, “the mistake I made was that, in claiming interest [from the expenses allowance] on the home, I didn’t separate from that the value of the servants’ … er the staff … wing. I claimed the whole of that and the whole of the council tax related to that.”
He will repay £40,000 to cover the tax, after designating the property to the inland revenue as his main residence but designating it to the Commons authorities as his second home, allowing him to claim allowances.
As for the servants’ quarters in Woking, Butterfill will be handing back £20,000.
Together, it will cost him a mere £60,000 to leave Westminster with a clean bill of health at the general election.
John Butterfill claimed £17,000 MPs’ expenses for servants’ … er, staff quarters
(Image: www.johnbutterfillmp.co.uk)