77. Extract from article in the News
of the World, 24 May 2009
Double dipping MPs in another dodgy deal
THE husband and wife Tory MPs who have been "double-dipping"
expenses so the taxpayer funds BOTH their homes were last night
caught up in a new scandal.
Julie Kirkbride and Andrew Mackay are letting her
brother live rent-free in their mansion flat that WE pay for,
the News of the World
can reveal.
And the brother, Ian Kirkbride, is even listed as
running a BUSINESS from the apartment in a stately home near Bromsgrove,
Worcs.
Last night, as Mackay, 59, agreed to stand down at
the next election after a talking-to from party leader David Cameron,
his wife spluttered: "Ian
spends a lot of time there because he's the carer of my child.
"I couldn't cope without that help."
She insisted her 59-year-old brother does not pay
any rent and only uses the property when her son is home.
Rules
But a gardener at the country estate says he's there
ALL the time . . . and son [name], aged nine, is at school all
week 116 miles away in London.
When questioned, Ms Kirkbride, 48, admitted: "There
are times when Ian's there and not looking after my son."
And she revealed she also has an au
pair.
Last night the MP claimed she had done nothing wrong
and her brother only stayed with her from "time
to time".
But in two interviews with the News
of the World she failed to explain why
he filed the address as his main residence on forms he submitted
to Companies House for his business.
He is also listed there not as a child carer, but
a director and IT consultant.
Meanwhile, Ms Kirkbride has been claiming more than
£1,000 a month in mortgage payments on the apartment which
she named as her second home—plus thousands more for maintenance.
Under Commons rules only an MP's direct family—spouses
and children—are supposed to share the second home. Last
June she wrote to Parliament's Fees Office telling them she had
been forced to extend the apartment "accommodating
the needs of our growing family."
Ms Kirkbride told us: "If
you want more women with children to go into Parliament we can't
manage without carers and that's who Ian is. He does it mainly
in Bromsgrove."
There was no sign of son [name] in her [car] when
she left the property yesterday morning. The schoolboy is also
listed as a shareholder in his uncle's company [name].
But Mrs Kirkbride claimed: "It
was a paper company, it never traded." However,
she did confirm her brother had two other directorships in companies
based in another county and also looked after her aged mother
in [name of town].
...
The couple bought the three-bedroom apartment [address]
near Bromsgrove, in 1997. Commons expenses files show that, in
2005, Ms Kirkbride declared the flat her second home and collected
£21,613 in expenses.
Her husband—MP for Bracknell, Berks—told
the Fees Office it was his MAIN home. Under Commons rules, MPs
are supposed to pay for one home themselves, while the taxpayer
picks up the tab for their second. But between 2005 and 2008 Ms
Kirkbride claimed £66,763 on the exclusive [Bromsgrove] apartment.
At the same time Mr Mackay received £66,192
for their London house, claiming that as his SECOND home.
In one year alone Ms Kirkbride claimed £2,169
for cleaning, £2,466 for service charges, £1,545 on
food, £501 on curtains, £639 on a bed and £828
for carpets at their converted Georgian flat.
Her husband claimed more than £1,000 a month
in mortgage interest payments on their joint Westminster flat.
Ms Kirkbride used her Additional Costs Allowance
to claim more than £900 a month on paying off the mortgage
for their family home near her constituency. That went up last
year after she increased their mortgage by £50,000 to pay
for an extension.
They even claimed for each other's travel costs,
with Kirkbride claiming £1,392 under the category "spouse
travel" while Mackay claimed £408.
Scrutiny
Last year, the Bromsgrove MP took out another £50,000
mortgage on the property and her mortgage interest claims on the
home loan increased from £900 to £1,171.
When she wrote to the Fees Office to explain her
increased mortgage charges, they replied saying the letter "suggests
her designated second home is in fact her primary residence."
But in all her correspondence she failed to mention her brother
was living there.
When initially confronted over double-dipping, Ms
Kirkbride defended her expenses as "both
permissible and reasonable." She
added: "I believe
that I was operating perfectly properly within the system."
24 May 2009
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