Daily Mail

It’s carry on claiming as PM packs pals in Lords

- By Mario Ledwith and Daniel Martin

DAVID Cameron’s plans to stuff the House of Lords with dozens of Tory peers will cost taxpayers millions more in inflated expenses bills, campaigner­s have warned.

The Mail revealed this week that dozens of peers based in London are taking advantage of a scheme designed to make the system fairer in the wake of the expenses scandal.

Disgraced Baron Sewel highlighte­d the racket after footage emerged of his cocaine-fuelled party with two prostitute­s. But despite the scandal, David Cameron has said he will press ahead with plans to hand out more peerages to boost Tory representa­tion in the Upper Chamber.

Yesterday campaign group the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) warned that proposals to appoint 50 more Tory peers over the summer would cost at least £1.3million in expenses

‘It has become dysfunctio­nal’

and allowances. The body also said further Tory appointmen­ts in the Lords to make the chamber reflect the make-up of the Commons would require the appointmen­t of dozens more peers at even greater cost.

Peers were previously only allowed to claim £174 as an overnight allowance to cover the cost of a mortgage, rent or a hotel if they listed their principal residence outside London.

The new tax- free £ 300 rate is intended to cover accommodat­ion, living and staff costs for each day of Parliament­ary work.

But because the new daily entitlemen­t is determined by attendance, not residence, peers who live in London receive the exactly same sum as those who travel from hundreds of miles outside the capital. Lords can also claim a lower rate of £150 if they are doing other work on the same day, but the decision is left to the conscience of the peer involved.

The current system allows members to claim the full daily rate of £300 using their own discretion, so long as they turn up at the chamber without having to clock out. But scores of wealthy peers are cynically claiming the allowance – designed to help with accommodat­ion costs – despite living just minutes from Westminste­r.

Analysis by the Daily Mail this week revealed that peers living in London pocketed £763,350 in attendance payments in January and February of this year alone.

In order to claim the £300-a- day allowance, Lords simply have to submit a form at a later date declaring that they have ‘undertaken Parliament­ary work’. The payments are then handed to the peers without any checks on how long they have spent in the Lords or attempts to see whether they tabled questions or attended committees.

Describing the system as a ‘mess’, one senior member of the Lords said that many of his colleagues were simply turning up and leaving shortly after in a cynical ploy to claim public money. Lord Taverne, who himself claimed £8,400 in January and February despite living only 0.4 miles from Westminste­r, said: ‘Some people just come in to claim their allowance.

‘Because it’s an allowance and is not taxed it is quite a lot of money. There is huge overpopula­tion of the Lords and it has become dysfunctio­nal. The whole thing is a mess.’

Accounts show that the House of Lords had net operating costs of £93million – or £118,000 for each peer – last year, with an average spend of £25,826 on each peer’s expenses. But a House of Lords spokesman said: ‘A system where peers had to record when they arrived and left the House would not establish how much parliament­ary work they completed.’

PEER GETS £300 A DAY TO WALK 200 YARDS TO WORK

From yesterday’s Mail

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