Tell her where to go

SAT-NAV TIMES TWO

A LABOUR MP billed the taxpayer for two SAT-NAVS bought on the SAME day but put in the receipts two months apart.

Assistant Whip Lyn Brown charged the taxpayer £349.99 for "Satellite Navigation" in March 2007.

Two months later she charged another £229 for a "Tom Tom One Nagivation System".

The second is included on a £740.26 receipt paid to business suppliers Banner.

Ms Brown also got taxpayers to pay £15,000 for a second home near Westminster, even though her West Ham constituency is just 23 minutes from Parliament by Tube.

She has now said she will give up the central London flat. Ms Brown even claimed £100 for four bound copies of her own maiden speech - and put through a receipt for a 24p pair of scissors.

She was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Talk ain't cheap

VOICE COACH LESSONS

A LABOUR MP billed the taxpayer £200 for VOICE COACHING.

Barbara Keeley, Deputy Leader of the House of Commons, hired voice teacher and actor Luan de Burgh to improve her speeches in the chamber.

The MP for Worsley claimed the cash for two hour-long sessions in 2007, after being in Parliament for two years.

Asked if she thought it was a justified use of taxpayers' hard-earned cash, Keeley simply replied: "Yes I do." She added: "A number of people had the same stuff. Training is an allowable expense."

Keeley cost us a further £125 after damaging fittings in her London flat.

A zooming cheek

CAMERA FOR CHRISTMAS

TOP Labour MP Sharon Hodgson got the taxpayer to fork out almost £600 for top-of-the range CAMERA EQUIPMENT she bought . . . funnily enough just days before Christmas.

The mother of two and MP for Gateshead East & Washington West bought an Olympus digital camera kit, lenses and a graphic drawing tablet in Singapore.

Mrs Hodgson, who is Parliamentary Private Secretary to Minister Dawn Primarolo, submitted the expenses for December 5, 2007, with an exchange rate slip showing there were 2.89 Singapore dollars to the Pound. But records show the Singapore dollar-to-Sterling rate didn't fall under 2.90 until AFTER December 20.

Nick's Whipround

UNION PAYOUT

CHIEF Whip Nick Brown paid £20,000 of taxpayers' money in rent to the powerful GMB trade union, according to his expenses files.

And the union gave him cash back - handing over donations worth £5,448 to Brown and his local Labour party.

In 2005, Brown claimed £8,000 in rent for his constituency office, a room in the union's Newcastle offices. Over the next three years the rent fell to £4,000 a year.

Since 2002 the GMB have dished out subsidies to his office and political campaigns in turn. At the 2005 general election, the union paid £2,500 for his election leaflets.

I add sum

NUMBER'S UP

EQUALITIES Minister Michael Foster claimed £70 for numeracy and literacy tests at his local college.

The ex-solicitor made the claims in 2007 for basic tests of GCSE standard at Hastings College, East Sussex.

Last night Foster, 63, said: "They were for a member of my staff to improve her skills.

"I've always believed it's best to educate staff to the highest possible standard."

It's money on tap

SINK FUNDS

NORTHERN Ireland Minister Paul Goggins put in claims totalling £6,000 to spruce up his kitchen, right down to a shiny new sink.

In January 2007 the Labour MP got £2,380 to refurbish the kitchen and, exactly a year later, billed the taxpayer AGAIN with £3,828 so he could pay his flatmate's brother to fit it.

He claimed everything from a chimney sweep and landscaping to pots of emulsion paint and a £1.48 dustpan and brush. Goggins, 55, also had to repay £1,995 of expenses on his south London "second home" after letting a friend live there rent free.

• ROBBER STAMPED
• Tory John Gummer pays £10k in expenses to company he owns

This article has 12 comments