Nancy Taaffe, Housing campaigner
Money-grubbing Labour MP Pat McFadden has claimed over £21,000 expenses – to rent a house next to one he owns! The shadow Europe minister has access to three homes.
Contrast that with one of the most endearing images of new left-wing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. A photo of him on a London night bus was widely shared on social media.
Sweaty
A fellow passenger captured him standing reading a newspaper. En-during the sweaty, crushed jour-ney home with the working class of London.
McFadden prefers to travel by the Westminster gravy train. He boarded at the 2005 election – and boy has he had some ride.
In 2006, he bought a three-bedroom house near the centre of his Wolverhampton constituency for £159,000. He claimed more than £5,500 for legal fees and stamp duty.
Then, of course, he needed furniture. So he claimed £4,800 for that.
In July 2012 he let this house out, moved next door – and began claiming the rent on his expenses!
On top of this, he has a London home in fashionable (and eye-wateringly expensive) Highgate. He bought it for a mere £799,950 in 2009.
Careerists
When I was a schoolgirl in London in the eighties, buses had conductors who kept strict order. If Jeremy Corbyn wants a new kind of politics in Labour, he has to call ‘last stop’ on such careerists.
He will find it makes for a far more pleasant journey for all of us, him included.
