Yesterday I revealed that two Labour Ministers had been (mis)using parliamentary expenses for Labour Party campaigning.
Now make that three Labour ministers caught doing so just hours after the Labour Party launched its election manifesto telling us all how quickly and decisively the present Labour government had acted to clean up the parliamentary expenses scandal. Although it is noteworthy that Gordon Brown himself broke the rules by launching Labour's manifesto at an NHS hospital.
Pensions minister, Anglea Eagle joins the sorry ranks of Transport minister Sadiq Khan and Labour whip/Deputy Minister for the East of England Bob Blizzard in having had been caught using parliamentary expenses for Labour Party campaigning.
Miss Eagle is reported to have used House of Commons stationary and prepaid envelopes to write unsolicited letters to voters in her Merseyside constituency on the very day Gordon Brown called the general election.
Parliamentary rules specifically forbid the use of House of Commons stationary for any unsolicited letters, as well as strictly forbidding their use for party political purposes or to help MPs gain re election. Yet Miss Eagle even sent a letter to the home of a former voter who had been dead for five years, something that has been reported to have caused significant distress to the man’s widow.
Not a very satisfactory start to an election that was supposed to be about cleaning up parliament...
