MP wants expense claims made public

May 29 2009 by Lisa Boyle

AN AYRSHIRE MP claims he has nothing to fear – after lifting the lid on five years’ worth of expenses.

Brian Donohoe invited the Ayrshire Post to his constituency office this week and allowed us to look at claim forms and receipts for every expense he has claimed during that time.

And he insists everything has been done by the book.

Mr Donohoe laid out expenses for his second home in London as well as the costs for running his constituency office at Nelson Mandela cottages in Irvine.

He’s also vowed to put them on his website for everyone to read.

The MP for Central Ayrshire said: “I’ve been fighting for the last two weeks to have my accounts put on the web so that anybody can view them. That’s my intention. I want that information on the internet.”

And he wants other members to join him in making their expenses public.

He added: “I don’t want to make an issue of any other member. It’s for them to do as they please.

“I had hoped we would be able to do this together in Ayrshire but it’s not been possible for all sorts of different reasons.

“We’ve all taken decisions on how we are going to deal with this and I’m dealing with it this way.”

For the third year running, Mr Donohoe has claimed the maximum allowance for his London apartment. In 2008/09 that equated to £23,995.

It includes £1500 for food. In previous years, Mr Donohoe had employed a cleaner five times a month at £20 a time. But he has stopped claiming for this.

From his communications allowance, Mr Donohoe has given money to junior football clubs, including £1000 to Troon and £367 to Irvine Meadow. He has also frequently paid for adverts in local newspapers.

Mr Donohoe has owned a second home in London for most of his time in office.

After being elected in 1992, he bought a one bedroom flat and used it as his London base until November 2005.

Then he moved into a one bedroom rented accomodation. He paid a £1650 deposit and his rent was £1191 per month.

In August 2006, Mr Donohoe bought another property, which he still owns. It is a one bedroom apartment and the mortgage payment is £1421 per month. Mr Donohoe also paid £470 to a removal company.

He explained: “I phoned an estate agent down in London yesterday. I asked how much I would pay if I were to start that process today and have a similar one bedroom flat in London. I was told I wouldn’t get one for less than £450,000.

“I could go into an ex-council house for no less than £250,000. That’s the cheapest flat you’ll get in London.

“And tradesmen in London are outrageously expensive. It cost me £4000 to clear up a bathroom problem because of penetration of water.”

He continued: “Living in London is not cheap. And over the years members have found that their salaries haven’t kept pace.

“But on the other side of things I am really aware that other people are not as fortunate. I’ve had an email today from someone who is surviving on £40 a week. And it’s that person who is getting very aggrieved when he sees what is going on.”

Last week, Harriet Harman announced temporary changes to the system including a £1250 cap on mortgage and rent claims per month.

In 2007, Mr Donohoe backed a bill to exempt parliamentary expenses from freedom of information legislation. He now admits he should not have done that.

Mr Donohoe said: “I think the announcement means that we are well on course to have the transparency that I believe should have been in place some time ago.

“We’re all entitled to make mistakes, I have to accept that there was a mistake made in not accepting the freedom of information of all of our expenses. I voted the other way and I think that was a mistake.”

Sandra Osborne, MP for Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock, released a statement on her expenses last week.

She said: “I have never owned a property in London and have a tenancy of an unfurnished flat. I have used my allowances for the purposes they were intended in order to live in reasonable comfort, although I do not regard anything I have purchased as extravagant or luxurious.

“However, the whole system has now lost all credibility and should be scrapped.”