robbing politician

Employment minister tony mcnulty will face a parliamentary inquiry into allegations he broke Commons' rules over his expenses claims, it was confirmed today.
John Lyon, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, will launch a formal investigation into the way McNulty has used the additional costs allowance to claim £60,000 for a house where his parents live that is eight miles from his main home.
Lyon was responding to a complaint by the Tory MP Greg Hands, who wrote to the commissioner about the case after details of McNulty's claims were revealed in the Mail on Sunday.
The commissioner does not have to investigate every complaint he receives. His decision to launch an inquiry in this case suggests that he believes McNulty has a case to answer.
McNulty, the employment minister and Labour MP for Harrow East, has insisted the payments, which he has been claiming since 2002, were permitted under Commons rules. These allow MPs to claim up to £24,000 to help meet the costs of running a second home.
But Hands said that he thought the arrangement was "indefensible" because the house in Harrow is just 11 miles from Westminster and only eight miles from McNulty's main home in Hammersmith.
McNulty said at the weekend that he made "considerable" use of the Harrow property but also felt "some discomfort" in collecting the money and had therefore stopped claiming it in January.
The committee on standards in public life said that later this year it would launch a comprehensive inquiry into MPs' pay and expenses.




bunch of robbing bastards