British eurosceptic claims £2m - 27/05/2009
Expenses scandal engulfs Europe
By Fiachra Gibbons/RFI
The expenses scandal that has shaken Britain's political class and claimed the head of the Speaker of the House of Commons now threatens to engulf Europe.
Several British MPs have already been forced to resign from their parties for claiming exorbitant expenses for everything from the cost of cleaning the moats of their castles to hiring electricians to change a lightbulb.
One even billed the public purse for building a house for his ducks. The furore culminated with the departure of the Speaker of the Commons, Michael Martin, the first time such a normally uncontroversial establishment figure has been forced to step down for 300 years.
But now public anger is turning towards MEPs, whose liberal expenses regime has been long the target of the country's eurosceptics. Ironically, however, it is the leader of the UK Independence Party (pictured), who want to pull Britain out of Europe, who has been exposed as the worst offender. Nigel Farage, who has called on voters to punish the "greedy" establishment parties at the European elections in nine days' time, has himself boasted of taking more than 2.3m euros in expenses from the European Parliament, on top of his salary of nearly 80,000 euros.
It comes as UKIP has risen to an unprecedented 17 per cent in the polls on the back of public disenchantment with the greed of national MPs. But now Farage's astonishing admission threatens to burst his party's bubble.
Farage, who employs his own wife as his paid parliamentary assistant, tried to limit the damage by saying that MEPs were "very expensive", but opponents have accused him and his party of gross hypocrisy. He has long insisted that the EU is too expensive, and his party has campaigned on a platform that Euro corruption is so endemic it is unreformable (below right). "We should not be paying 40 millions pounds a day to an organisation whose accounts have not been signed off for 14 years in a row," he said.
Farage insisted that he had not "pocketed" the money but had instead used the "very large sum of European taxpayers' money" to subvert the EU and hasten Britain's exit from the union. But this is far from the first time that UKIP has found itself embroiling in expenses rows, with two of its original 16 MEPs actually charged with fraud. Tom Wise, who has since left the party, and his researcher Lindsay Jenkins are both facing prison for alleged abuse of their expenses, and another former MEP, Ashley Mote, 73, was given an nine-month suspended prison sentence two years ago for falsely claiming benefits of more than £65,000. Another leading British MEP, the Tory Den Dover, has been forced to pay back £445,000 in "unaccountable expenditure". He had been accused of paying his wife and daughter nearly £750,000 from European funds.
Farage let the size of his expenses claims slip during a debate about Europe at the Foreign Press Association in London. He was asked by former Europe minister Denis MacShane what he had received in non-salary expenses and allowances since becoming an MEP in 1999. "It is a vast sum," he said. "I don't know what the total amount is but it must be pushing £2m."
The expenses claims of European parliamentarians have come under increasing scrutiny over the last few years. The regime was seen as generally lax until the first reforms four years ago, and the lack of transparency about allowances and travel expenses in particular had become a running embarrassment. Part of the reason for the liberal regime was an attempt to make up for the glaring disparities in pay between MEPs from different countries. For the last decade or so MEPs were paid the same as their colleagues in their national parliaments, which meant that Italian members were paid nearly 130,000 euros, while those from Spain received less than a quarter of that, and those from the new member states in the east only a tiny fraction of that sum.
However, all new MEPs elected in June will get a Europe-wide flat salary of 91,984 euros - which will mean a pay cut for those from Austria, Germany and Italy - while sitting members will come under pressure to agree to the same deal. The rules on expenses have also been tightened sharply, but worries remain over enforcement, with officials only conducting spot-checks on MEPs accounts rather than systematic vetting of every claim.
(Photo:Wikimedia)
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Adrian Wainer
- 03/06/2009
The big issue is that the European Union is acting undemocratically and is ideologically too comfortable with Islamist extremism, which itself is heavily contaminated with Nazism. The British saw what Nazism did on the continent of Europe 1939 to 1945 and did want to be involved with Nazism then and they do not want to be involved with Nazism now. Either the European Union starts respecting the sovereignity of the member states or Britain is getting out of it.
LIBORIO PRESS
- 29/05/2009
May 29, 2009 Liborio Press
WITH ONE ELFANT IN THE CIRCUS IS ENOUGH.
That is the problem of copy cat politician. At the time when the American Union of States was created, the people of their 13 colinies were 95% analfabetas, at the time the European Union were created the people of their 5 States was 95% literates and 5% analfabetas. In such condiction a union cannot be create.
John West
- 28/05/2009
Farage has refused to say what the money was spent on. What has he got to hide?
Anonymous
- 28/05/2009
I cannot believe the above comments supporting a man who is clearly proving to be a hypocrit. As far as the comment he has used the money to get Britain out of the EU - where is the proof of that? Documents made public so far have shown that Mr Farage has contributed least (if not zero) to his own party whereby many of his colleagues have donated £000's.
Regardless of this, I cannot believe that any poster on here could advocate that it is justified to claim inflated expenses (which is our money after all) regardless of the purpose to which it is used. A vote for UKIP is clearly NO different from a vote for the LibLabCon.
Anonymous
- 28/05/2009
er......OK if Farage is as clean as his defenders claim, then why doesn't he publish a detailed breakdown of where all his expenses have gone???? If he fails to then it can only be because he wants to coveer something up! And what exactly does his wife do for the money he diverts to her???
Robert Feal-Martinez
- 28/05/2009
This article with reference to UKIP is yet again another pathetic attempt by the main political parties in Britain to divert attention from the real issues facing our country. What the article of course doesn't say is that the average expenses of MEP's is £357k a year as revealed in The Sun Newspaper, which means Nigel Farage has taken £157k a year less than most MEP's.
As has been said most of the money went on promoting Britain and our exit from the UNION. Where did the LibLabCon money go.
I wrote to labour MEP Richard Corbett asking for details of what he has claimed, but of course I got no reply.
Greg L-W.
- 28/05/2009
The arrogance and hedonistic hubris of many career politicians like Farage is often a surprise to their more naiive supporters.
They do not even notice the signs as the so called leader dumbs down his party, surrounding himself with lack lustre and frequently dishonest men and women on the make and the take but careful never to let their benefactor feel threatened.
Sadly UKIP has been destroyed in a lurch back to an outdated style of authoritarian, extreme right wing centralised control often propped up by its own enemies like The BNP, Greens and Searchlight who with a common aim collude in the chicannery needed to enrich themselves.
Sad but look at history where political parties either fizzle out or over expand like a pulsar before collapsing.
UKIP had much to offer and much to do but with no competent leadership it has slid into the gutter of greed protected by lies as EUkip - where all its informed critics are denounced and abused and children and the 'challenged' are rallied by dishonest spin to distort the truth in return for personal gain.
Clearly the best course of action for the approximate 80% of the British peoples who wish to either leave the EU or ammend our relationship to a mere trading arrangement - that write on YOUR Ballot:
LEAVE THE EU
don't waste your vote on a self seeking Greedy Politician
Withold YOUR Mandate.
Write:
LEAVE THE EU
Regards,
Greg L-W.
Anonymous Ann
- 28/05/2009
Nigel Farrage has always been "Up Front" about what he uses his expenses for. He has always made that very clear. He is fighting for his Country to govern itself as it should be doing. For years now, since Edward Heath took the un-United Kingdom into the then EEC, our MP's have taken their "wages" and vast expenses for obeying EU orders like the rest of us. They have all been on "easy street" while the 'man in the street' has been paying. I think the same goes for every Nation State that is actually IN the EU Club. You are telling us nothing new Fiachra Gibbons/RFI he is quite open what he wants the money for. AND I AM NOT IN UKIP BUT BY GOLLY I WILL VOTE FOR THEM.
Anonymous
- 28/05/2009
Agree. Farage was making a point about the expenses system. It's inconceivable that he'd publically 'boast' about creaming £2 million off the taxpayer.
Very biased reporting .. shame on you.
Matt Davies
- 27/05/2009
UKIP always said they would use their expenses to fight the EU. This they have done and are doing, thus weak attack pieces like this won't cut the mustard.
KEEP IT UP UKIP, YOU HAVE THEM ON THE RUN!!!!