Further to the open thread on MPs' expenses elsewhere on the site, I have been looking through a selection of MPs' claims and am intrigued by the entries I have read for Kali Mountford, the Labour MP for Colne Valley.
She announced on January 16th this year that she would not be seeking re-election to the Commons at the general election.
Interesting, then, that she felt the need to refurnish her rented taxpayer-funded pad in Westminster just a month before making that announcement.
Looking through her documentation here, you will see that she submitted a claim on December 12th 2008 (page 24) for a £562.23 LCD television bought in West Yorkshire on November 30th.
Then on February 19th 2009 (page 31) she submitted a claim for £2,239 for 2 sofas and a table, also bought from an outlet in West Yorkshire, on December 7th.
When the Fees Office queried (page 35) why these were delivered to her main home in her constituency, she explained (page 36) that they were purchased for and subsequently delivered to her London residence - on which she maxed out her allowance for the year, being told by the Fees Office in March 2009 that she had insufficient funds to cover her final claim of the year (page 39).
What is all the more odd though, is that by April 2009 she no longer appeared to have that home in Westminster which had been in urgent need of a new TV and new furniture several months beforehand: page two of this document covering the beginning of 2009-2010 shows her claiming £572.70 for two nights in the plush Marriott Hotel at County Hall, opposite the Houses of Parliament, for the nights of 21st and 22nd April 2009.
That said, page three of the the same document suggests she was claiming over £3,200 for rent covering little more than a fortnight in April 2009.
Very strange indeed.
