MP moans over cost of poppy wreaths in bitter cash battle with ex-wife
A TORY MP has complained about the ‘huge cost’ of being an MP – including having to pay for poppy wreaths.
Andrew Bridgen said the amount he had to spend out of his own pocket for Remembrance Sunday services was not appreciated by the public.
The MP for North West Leicestershire made the claim during a court bid to halt his £1,100-per-month payments to former wife Jacqueline, who is now living with a new partner.
Mr Bridgen said the divorce proceedings had left him nearly penniless.
But his former wife accused the £80,000-a-year MP of enjoying a ‘luxury’ lifestyle with his new wife, Serbian opera singer Nevena Pavlovic.
Mr Bridgen said: ‘ On Remembrance Sunday I buy five wreaths for the five main services. I will attend three and I will read the names at all of them.
‘It is now de rigeur that MPs can’t put in claims for wreaths or travel – £175 on wreaths it will cost me, £200 [including travel] to be the MP of North West Leicestershire on that Remembrance Sunday.
‘Something I do gladly but which is not appreciated by the general public. So the remuneration of an MP is not the same as if I was working for the Co-op.
‘There are huge costs to being an MP which can never be claimed for. I have not had a holiday this year.’
Mr Bridgen said his divorce cost him more than £1million in payments to his ex-wife and more than £500,000 in legal fees.
‘My personal assets run to less than £20,000 and that would be if I sold all the furniture in the house I rent,’ he told the family court hearing held at Nottingham Crown Court.
‘I have no car, no house and a bad credit rating. Until I am paid I have less than £200 in the bank.
‘My income has dropped by 70 per cent. I fought two general elections in the last two years, where I could have lost my job, and, who knows, we might be fighting another one soon. There is no more insecure employment than politics.’
But District Judge Richard MacMillan told him: ‘You chose to go into politics, Mr Bridgen.’
His ex-wife, a trainee teaching assistant, told the court Mr Bridgen ‘chooses to live a luxury lifestyle to the detriment of our children’. The hearing was told he recently bought a £3,000 ring for Miss Pavlovic, transferred £2,500 to her account and spent thousands visiting her in Serbia.
‘The court should put the needs of our children above his,’ said Miss Bridgen. ‘ His income is approximately £4,000 a month and he chooses to spend over half on rent for a property that is way beyond his means.
‘My income is £8,000 a year while his is 10 times that. Frankly without that money I don’t know how I’m going to manage each month. I still need the support of spousal maintenance payments so I can meet the needs of our children.
‘I have to sit here and fight and listen to the foul things Mr Bridgen has to say because I have no alternative to provide for my children.’
The MP had applied to have around £5,000 in maintenance payments repaid to him.
Judge MacMillan refused but agreed he was not obliged to hand over £7,673 of payments he had missed this year.
Mr Bridgen split from his first wife, and mother of his two sons, five years ago after a decade of marriage.
During the expenses scandal, Boris Johnson and ex- shadow chancellor Ed Balls were both exposed for claiming money to cover Remembrance Sunday wreaths. Speaking after the hearing, Mr Bridgen last night said: ‘I continue to fully take care financially of my children. The issue in dispute was my former wife was claiming maintenance whilst cohabiting with a partner, something that the judge recognised.’
He said paying for poppy wreaths was something he did ‘gladly’ and that he was a member of the British Legion and supported its fundraising. He said the cost of poppy wreaths was one of several examples he gave about the financial pressures on MPs during the three -hour hearing.
‘Chooses to live a luxury lifestyle’