On your bike! MSP claims back £5.40 on expenses... for riding to work
AS a committed cyclist, Labour MSP Claudia Beamish’s daily commute to Holyrood doesn’t cost her a penny.
However, new expenses claims have revealed that her trips to and from work are not free for the Scottish taxpayer.
The South of Scotland MSP took the time to claw back £5.40 at 20p-a-mile for cycling the three-mile journey between her Edinburgh home and the parliament last year.
Other shameless MSPs billed the taxpayer for top- of-the-range handheld computers, a sandwich toaster and a mirror. With politicians claiming nearly £5,000 a day during the final three months of 2012, the findings have once again sparked the question: ‘When will they ever learn?’
Conservative MSP Alex Fergusson, the former Presiding Officer, decided to submit a receipt for 49p for a carton of milk from Tesco.
Mr Fergusson, who represents Galloway and West Dumfries, owns property and land worth up to £800,000 and receives £45,000 a year in rent from a wind farm on top of his £57,000-a-year salary.
SNP Midlothian North and Musselburgh MSP Colin Beattie decided that taxpayers should pick up the bill for a £29.96 sandwich toaster from ASDA – as well as a £1 bar of soap from Marks & Spencer.
His Nationalist colleague Jim Eadie, MSP for Edinburgh Southern, clawed back £322 for various office items including a mirror and a picture. Public Health Minister Michael Matheson spent £3.48 on cleaning products, which included ‘apple’ hygiene wipes.
Education Secretary Mike Russell, who became the first MSP to launch his own mobile phone ‘app’ last year, spent more than £290 on developing the program.
Tory Jackson Carlaw spent £623 of taxpayers’ cash on an iPad from the Apple Store, although his party colleague Alex Johnstone settled for a £559 Microsoft tablet device.
Eben Wilson, director of pressure group TaxpayerScotland said: ‘Our MSPs need to remember that they are now being watched very closely. When will they ever learn?
‘Some of these expenses may seem trivial but that’s the point, we want our representatives to be professional and honourable and not expect us to pay for household goods and trivia with our taxes.’
MSPs earn more than £57,000 a year and the latest revelations come less than four years after public trust in politicians fell to an all-time low in the wake of the Westminster expenses scandal.
In 2011-12, Holyrood politicians charged taxpayers more than £35,000 a day as they racked up an inflation-busting expenses bill. The £ 12.8million total dwarfed the previous year’s £11.8million.
The figures published yesterday covered the third quarter of 201213. Miss Beamish said: ‘I cycle as it’s a much more eco-friendly form of transport. I do on occasion claim for funds, which I am entitled to, to ensure my bike is properly maintained and roadworthy.’
A Scottish parliament spokesman said: ‘It is a recognised rate set by HMRC that [cycling is] a sustainable alternative to car mileage.’
He said iPads are also considered a ‘legitimate parliamentary cost’.
Asked about his 49p receipt, Mr Fergusson said: ‘This was a legitimate office expense for a pint of milk to provide tea and coffees for both staff and constituents.
‘Over the course of this parliament I will have donated over £100,000 to charity by not keeping the pension payable to former Presiding Officers and instead paying it through the Charities Aid Foundation.’
An SNP spokesman said: ‘ The Scottish parliament’s allowances system is the gold standard of transparency compared to Westminster – small items are purchased to fit out constituency offices.’