Shamed Labour MP uses taxpayer cash to rent his office from councillor
‘It isn’t even in the constituency’
A SHAMED Labour MP has been using taxpayers’ money to pay a Labour councillor thousands of pounds in rent for his constituency office while suspended from the party.
Jared O’Mara had the whip removed last October over sexist and homophobic comments made on social media and for calling a woman an ‘ugly bitch’ at the Sheffield bar he used to run.
But, while suspended, he continued to serve as MP for Sheffield Hallam, the seat he won in June last year from former Lib Dem leader Sir Nick Clegg.
Mr O’Mara, 37, was reinstated by the Labour Party last week after receiving a formal warning.
Now it has emerged that his Sheffield office is owned by a company whose sole directors are Abdul Khayum, a Labour councillor in the city, and Mr Khayum’s brother, Dr Amir Afzal, a Sheffield GP. Parliamentary records show Mr O’Mara has been claiming £780 a month in rent for the offices, at Redlands Business Centre, in the Tapton area of Sheffield, in a neighbouring constituency to his own.
The offices are the base for his constituency staff and case work – but neighbouring tenants said they have rarely seen him.
Mr O’Mara has already faced stinging criticism for his failure to meet community groups, communicate with constituents or to speak in Parliament. He has yet to make a maiden speech after 13 months. He took time off with an undisclosed illness last year, but in January he said he was returning to work.
Mr O’Mara only attended votes on 25 days in the 12 months to the end of June. Last Saturday he turned up to a drop-in constituency event at a library wearing a black T-shirt and jeans, with keys clipped to the waistband. The event, to discuss equality, is believed to be his first engagement for some weeks where members of the public were able to meet him without booking an appointment.
Lord Scriven, former Lib Dem council leader in Sheffield, said: ‘He doesn’t even have his office in his constituency. It’s in the neighbouring Central constituency and owned by a Labour councillor, who has been profiting from the taxpayer funding given to Jared to run his office.’ Mr Khayum said: ‘All tenants at Redlands Business Centre have a tenancy agreement with RBC, and they are required
to pay a fixed amount of rent for the offices they rent. During the time when he was suspended, Mr O’Mara’s staff continued to use the office.’
Mr O’Mara, who is paid £77,000 a year, said: ‘It’s a great honour to represent the constituency I grew up in and the city as a whole.’ He has pledged to remain in the job now he has been allowed to re-join the Labour Party.
He said he has been in Parliament more times than voting records show, and had not wanted to make his maiden speech while suspended.
Under rules set by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, MPs’ offices are supposed to be within their constituency, unless based within their home. But Mr O’Mara’s office is just a few streets outside the constituency boundary and he has argued that he had to find an office at short notice.
Asked about why he was renting from a Labour councillor in an office outside the constituency, he said: ‘It was the only office we could find unfortunately.’
MPs outside London can claim up to £24,880 a year for the rent and running costs of their constituency office, excluding staff.