My favourite MP is back in the news again today - what a pity!
A SCOTTISH Labour MP was last night asked to explain why he billed the taxpayer £250 for an alarm clock.
Michael Connarty, the MP for Linlithgow and Falkirk East, bought the radio alarm clock from electrical retailer Comet. But the claim has raised eyebrows as there does not appear to be any alarm clock available for the price. The most expensive one currently available at Comet costs £199.
Elsewhere, the top of the range Sunrise Alarm Clock, which includes a built in stereo MP3 player and personalised dawn to dusk light simulation, costs just £115.
The only alarm clock advertised as more expensive than Mr Connarty's was a stainless steel leather-bound one available from the Queen's jewellers,Asprey, for £750.
Mr Connarty was unavailable for comment yesterday because he was leading a delegation of MPs to Stockholm.
Susie Squire from the Taxpayers' Alliance said: "This is a staggering amount to pay for an alarm clock, but it is indicative of what MPs have been doing. Mr Connarty and his colleagues need to explain themselves to the people who elected them."
Mr Connarty also claimed £1,099 for a plasma television from John Lewis and £299 on a Panasonic TV stand in 2008. A year before he claimed £69.99 for a freeview box and £379.99 for a television.
He faced further questions about the sale of his flat to neighbouring Labour MP Jim Devine in 2007 when he moved in with the MP for Glasgow South Ian Davidson. Part of the sale to Mr Devine, who was also unavailable for comment, included £4,000 for furniture in the flat, including £1,000 for a sofa bed.
Mr Devine then claimed all the money back, even though the only valuation was made by the two MPs. Mr Connarty has also been asked to explain why he made £2,181 of claims for household goods for a second home while he shared a flat with Mr Davidson for 11 months.
During this period he claimed for mortgage interest.
In January 2007 he also claimed £1,114.75 for a bed frame which was bought in Falkirk and delivered to his constituency home, which was not his designated second home. He also claimed £149 for a footstool and £649 from Reid's for the same address. There were also questions about another bed he bought in Glasgow which was then delivered to an address in the city, even though it is not his constituency.
After buying his own new second home in London for £365,000, he started claiming £1,700 a month for his mortgage interest.
Labour's whips office has also been caught up in the controversy. Watford MP Claire Ward claimed £1,150 in petty cash over eight months; Dudley North MP Ian Austin submitted two claims for stamp duty of £6,770 and £1,344; and Dawn Butler, the MP for Brent South, claimed £2,650 for a central heating system and £2,308 for a Whirlpool bath suite.
Hull North MP Diana Johnson claimed £1,000 for an architect's services, and Birmingham Hall MP Steve McCabe over claimed on his mortgage by £4,059.
Edinburgh North and Leith MP Mark Lazarowicz has offered to pay back some expenses before the details of his claims have even come out.
Hogg to go
DOUGLAS Hogg, the Tory MP whose claim for clearing the moat at his country estate came to symbolise the excesses of MPs' expenses, is to stand down at the next general election.
He said he was making clear his intentions to give his local constituency party in Lincolnshire time to select a candidate for the election.
"I entirely understand the public anger that has erupted over expenses," he conceded. "The current system is deeply flawed; we parliamentarians have got it wrong and I apologise for that failure.
"In view of David Cameron's campaign for an early election – which I strongly support – I have decided that now is the time to (say] I will not be standing in the coming election."
Mr Hogg, a former agriculture minister, argued that he had not actually claimed for the £2,200 bill for clearing the moat at his estate. But he later agreed to pay back the money after accepting that it had not been "positively excluded" from paperwork submitted in support of his allowances claim for upkeep of the estate.
