Why Mahmood REALLY quit Labour front bench
KHALID MAHMOOD wants us to think he resigned from Labour’s front bench – announced on the day Hartlepool was lost – because he believes his party of bourgeois London-centric woke warriors have ‘lost touch with ordinary British people’.
But party chiefs responded last night to the Birmingham MP’s stinging article published on Friday by the Right-wing think tank Policy Exchange. Sources in Labour claim Mahmood’s resignation, which he submitted a month ago, has more to do with him needing extra money on top of his £81,932 MP’s salary. They say he had to step down as Shadow Defence Procurement Minister so he could resume a second job as a ‘senior fellow’ with the think-tank.
What could be driving this need for cash? I can reveal Mahmood’s former parliamentary staffer, Elaina Cohen, is taking him to an employment tribunal for the second time. In 2004, the couple enjoyed five- star hotel stays in London when Cohen was just his girlfriend. Soon after, the MP hired her and they had a ‘tempestuous’ relationship before it all went sour – particularly for the taxpayer. Mahmood, 59, used public money to fund his legal costs when Cohen, who is Jewish, took him to an employment tribunal for religious discrimination. The case was settled out of court, with Cohen having to sign a non-disclosure agreement in 2017. Mahmood kept her on his staff for three more years but she is once again taking him to an employment tribunal – this time for unfair dismissal. The Commons confirmed last night that the taxpayer will again fund these legal costs – though they will be capped at £250,000. But will the expenses watchdog be as generous as before, when Mahmood overspent his allotted legal and staffing budget by more than £8,000? Labour sources say the second job is to cover extra legal costs coming his way.
Policy Exchange are paying Mahmood £25,000 a year for two days a month. Very working class.
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It was an ideal place to exile t he megalomaniac Napoleon Bonaparte. So why not politicians with bad ideas, too?
PREDICTABLY, Lib Dem leader Ed Davey has added his tuppence to Wallpapergate. However, his predecessor Tim ‘I’m not a bigot’ Farron has kept quiet on the subject. Could it be because he’ s just been rapped for breaking the MPs’ Code of Conduct by, er, failing to declare donations for more than a year?
IS THIS finally the end of Neil ‘cash for questions’ Hamilton’s political career? The former disgraced Tory Minister turned TV celebrity and Ukip leader last week lost his seat in the Welsh Parliament. Message to GQ magazine’s editor – please don’t repeat history and put naked Neil and wife Christine on the front cover in a bid to rehabilitate them.