1548 Hrs GMT London Sunday 22 March 2009:
KHOODEELAAR! told the Crossrail hole/s scam-inviter Tower Hamlets Council in 2006 to sack Christine Gilbert from her then post as that Council’s ‘chief executive’.…. Not long after our call, we discovered that the then official occupant at No 10 Downing Street London SW1 had allowed arrangements to be made to salvage Christine Gilbert...That discovery was followed by the official announcement that Christine Gilbert was to be appointed ‘Chief inspector’ at OFSTED.….No official admission was made - or has so far been made - about the link [or about ANY link] between the KHOODEELAAR! demand for Christine Gilbert’s sacking and her being salvaged by being given that outrageously inappropriate post....We pointed out at the time, and well before any information reached us about that ‘salvage operation', that Christine Gilbert had failed the people and the community in Tower Hamlets. We then observed that the then miniature Conservative ’group’ ‘leader’ on the same Council [Simon Rouse] and his equally numerically miniscule co-group [the Lib Dems] 'leader' on the same Council found themselves able to deliver what could not have been based on empirical evidence far less the truth of any accurate knowledge on either of their parts of what Christine Gilbert had in fact been engaged in doing on behalf of the corrupt controlling clique on the Crossrail hole/s-scam-inviting Tower Hamlets Borough Council situated so far from the mentality of the imaged Hammersmith [as per the exhibition by the DAIY MAIL GRPUP this weekend] as it was even farther away from the psychology and the psychosis dominating Canary Wharf...….[To be continued]
33rd year AADHIKAR
0225 GMT Thursday 06 June 2013
AADHIKAR Media Foundation Editor © Muhammad Haque
Founding News Editor
Shah M Azizul Haque
AADHIKAR Media Foundation established with the publication of AADHIKAR the weekly on Monday 19 December 1980 from London E1 UK.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
KHOODEELAAR! TOLD YOU SO! That Crossrail hole/s scam-inviter Tower Hamlets Council's 'ex'-employee Christine Gilbert would feature in ‘unwelcome news’
1230 Hrs GMT London Sunday 22 March 2009.
KHOODEELAAR! TOLD YOU SO! As we note evidence of “Crossrail scam” preparation-stage Transport Minister [2004-2005] Tony McNulty in the ‘expenses’ news! Now “Crossrail hole/s attacks on the East End of London”-inviter Tower Hamlets Council’s ‘Chief Executive’ [until 2006] Christine Gilbert is featured in the Tony McNulty expenses claims news..
.[To be continued]
From the MAIL ON SUNDAY web site:
Minister's £60,000 expenses for parents' home: 'Rumbled' Tony McNulty drops claim... then calls for it to be curtailed
By SIMON WALTERS and GLEN OWEN
Last updated at 12:33 PM on 22nd March 2009
Comments (83)
Add to My Stories
Sudden U-turn: Tony McNulty has stopped claiming the second-home allowance
Another Labour Minister has been caught out in an expenses scandal after effectively admitting he had been wrong to claim £60,000 of taxpayers' money for a property which is his parents' main home - not his.
Employment Minister Tony McNulty performed a dramatic U-turn and announced he had stopped claiming the controversial MPs' second-home allowance after being challenged by The Mail on Sunday.
Even more astonishingly, he said that 133 MPs who, like him, live within 60 miles of Westminster should be banned from getting the £24,000-a-year handout.
Mr McNulty and his wife, chief schools inspector Christine Gilbert, have a combined annual income of a third of a million pounds and between them own two London homes worth £1.2million.
They live together in a house she owns just three miles from Westminster. Yet he has been claiming up to £14,000 a year in parliamentary expenses to help pay for the second house in Harrow where his parents live, 11 miles from the Commons.
The MP has been able to obtain the money because the house he owns is in his Harrow constituency and so qualifies him for the secondhome allowance. Initially, when Mr McNulty was approached by this newspaper on Friday he pointed out: 'It is all within the rules.'
But later, he changed his tune. When it was put to him, 'Do you accept it all looks very odd?', he replied: 'I do.'
He then compared his own unconvincing defence with that made by Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials, who said they were 'only obeying orders'.
Harrow: Mr McNulty has claimed at least £60,000 on this suburban home in which his parents James and Eileen live
Hammersmith: McNulty's wife Christine owns this home, where they both live
'It's not against the rules - though I suppose you might say that is the Nuremberg defence,' he observed.
He then suddenly announced that he had decided to stop claiming the allowance, which he has benefited from ever since becoming an MP in 1997. He said he had 'reflected' on the issue and stopped claiming the grant, officially called the Additional Costs Allowance (ACA), in January.
Asked if he had informed anyone in authority of his decision, either at the Commons or in the Labour Party, he replied: 'No, no one.'
The only person he had told was his wife, he said. He was adamant that it was not a spur-of-the-moment decision forced on him by this newspaper's investigation.
As if to emphasise how much he regretted his actions, Mr McNulty, who is also Minister for London and tipped to run against Boris Johnson for London Mayor in 2012, made an impromptu call for a major purge of MPs' expenses.
He said those who live within 60 miles of the capital should be forced to commute every day like any other worker, and lose their second-home allowance. Currently 159 MPs live within that radius. Twenty-six Inner London MPs already cannot claim the ACA - worth up to £24,000 a year - and of the remaining 133, 107 do claim. Mr McNulty's proposal could save taxpayers about £2million a year.
Mr McNulty said: 'There are senior Shadow frontbench figures who live five miles further away from Westminster than me who claim the lot . . .' before quickly adding: '. . . and that is entirely appropriate.'
Combined wealth: Christine Gilbert owns two London homes worth £1.2m with husband McNulty
His plan received a mixed response from Labour MPs who would be affected. Crawley MP Laura Moffatt said: 'It doesn't affect me because I don't have a second home.' Asked how she squared that with her claim of £61,457 between 2002 / 03 and 2006/07, she hung up.
Dagenham Labour MP Jon Cruddas was more positive. 'This idea should be kicked around, it's a discussion which should be had.'
Asked if he would be happy to sacrifice the £103,117 he claimed between 2002 and 2007, he said: 'If that is the agreed view of Parliament.'
But one MP who asked not to be named, said: 'Just because Tony McNulty has been rumbled does not give him the right to lecture those of us who need the money.'
It is the latest in a series of rows over MPs' expenses. Earlier this year, The Mail on Sunday revealed how Home Secretary Jacqui Smith claims £20,000-a-year expenses by arguing her London 'digs' at a house owned by her sister is her main home, not the substantial house in her Midlands constituency where she lives with her husband and young children.
Until October, Mr McNulty was Ms Smith's deputy at the Home Office. He denied his change of heart had anything to do with widespread condemnation of her conduct.
This is how Mr McNulty has cashed in on the ACA. Shortly after becoming Harrow East MP in 1997, he bought a house in Harrow, which is now worth an estimated £300,000.
He divorced his first wife, fellow Labour activist Gillian Travers and moved into the house with his parents, James and Eileen. By 2001, he had moved to Hammersmith to live with former headteacher Christine Gilbert. Ms Gilbert, also a divorcee, had bought thehouse - now worth about £900,000 --in 1994.
The couple married in September 2002. On their wedding certificate, both gave their address as the Hammersmith house, although in a Commons debate on data protection in 2005, Mr McNulty appeared to suggest his main home was in Harrow.
'I have no copyright on "Tony McNulty".' he said. 'I have no copyright on November 3, 1958 [his birthday]. I have no copyright on . . . [he then gave the Harrow address].'
In addition, he is on the electoral register in Harrow, not Hammersmith, where his wife is registered.
MPs can claim ACA on the mortgage interest payments on a second home - which means those members who have paid off their mortgage can receive nothing.
According to Land Registry documents, Ms Gilbert did not have a mortgage on the property when they moved in together, but Mr McNulty disputed this and insisted Ms Gilbert did have a mortgage at the time.
However, after they set up home together, both took out mortgages on their respective homes. Land Registry records show Ms Gilbert took out a loan on the Hammersmith property with the Bank of Scotland later in 2001, while Mr McNulty took out a fresh loan on his Harrow house with the same bank in 2003.
Mr McNulty said he used the loan to 'pay off some debts'. His wife had used hers to buy a maisonette beneath the Hammersmith home to make it bigger. Around the same time, Mr McNulty's second-home expenses nearly doubled - from £7,400 in 2001 to £14,000 in 2002.
Mr McNulty confirmed his wife is still the sole owner of the home, but he pays half the cost of her mortgage.
The weakness of Mr McNulty's second-home allowance is laid bare by a 'golden triangle of expenses' map which shows how close they are to each other - nine miles - and to the Commons. The Hammersmith home is nine London Underground stops fromWestminster, the Harrow house just eight stops from the Commons.
Enlarge
Scandal after scandal: How The Mail On Sunday has relentlessly exposed how MPs cash in on their expenses
Since 2001/02, the first year for which figures are available, Mr McNulty has claimed a total of £59,998 in second-home allowances. In the past five years he has claimed £52,598.
Assuming he claimed a similar amount from 1997 to 2001 and in the current financial year, he is likely to have claimed up to £100,000 in second-home allowances in total.
Asked if he had told the Commons Fees Office, which pays MPs' expenses, of his decision to stop claiming the ACA, Mr McNulty said: 'I haven't
. . . I have been too busy. I was planningto do so at the end of the financial-year.' Had he told Labour Whips or Party officials? 'I'm not sure it's a matter for party officials.'
Asked what had brought about his change of heart, he said: 'I have always felt some discomfort in claiming the money, to be frank. I decided that it's simply time that I stopped --partly because mortgage interest rates have gone down and partly because I can do without it.'
Asked if he planned to pay back the money, he indicated he would not. 'It's not that I shouldn't be claiming. I just feel a lot happier in myself in trying to make sure that I am as sensible as I can be with taxpayers' money, and that is what I have done.'
He pointed out he had never claimed the maximum £24,000 a year ACA. When he became a Minister and acquired the use of a chauffeur-driven limousine, he stopped claiming for travel to and from his constituency. Nor did he claim goods for his Harrow home using the notorious 'John Lewis list', nor for the council tax there.
Mr McNulty said the Commons should consider following the lead set by Members of the Scottish Parliament. Those who live within 90 minutes of the Edinburgh Parliament, roughly 60 miles, cannot claim for a second home. But MPs have been resistant to such reforms. Last July, they threw out an independent review body's proposal to cut £10,000 from the secondhome allowance for Outer London MPs such as Mr McNulty.
The Commons 'Green Book' which sets out the rules on expenses makes it clear that ACA claims must be 'above reproach' and that MPs 'must avoid any arrangement which may give rise to an accusation that you are, or someone close to you' is benefiting from public funds.
MPs are also 'strongly advised' to avoid subletting or renting out any property on which they claim ACA.
Mr McNulty and Ms Gilbert met when he was a college lecturer and Harrow councillor and she was the council's director of education.
She became chief executive of Tower Hamlets council and was Ofsted's chief inspector three years ago, for which she earns £225,000 a year. Mr McNulty earns £104,050, and both have gold-plated pensions.
Since being elected MP for Harrow East in 1997, Mr McNulty has earned a reputation as an outspoken and popular MP. His robust defence of Labour's record has led to him being used increasingly as a Government spokesman - and yesterday on BBC Radio 4, Jonathan Dimbleby dubbed him 'the Government's flak jacket'.
Last month he admitted he could not survive on the £60.50-a-week Jobseeker's Allowance. The McNulty-Gilberts earn that much in an hour and a half.
KHOODEELAAR! TOLD YOU SO! As we note evidence of “Crossrail scam” preparation-stage Transport Minister [2004-2005] Tony McNulty in the ‘expenses’ news! Now “Crossrail hole/s attacks on the East End of London”-inviter Tower Hamlets Council’s ‘Chief Executive’ [until 2006] Christine Gilbert is featured in the Tony McNulty expenses claims news..
.[To be continued]
From the MAIL ON SUNDAY web site:
Minister's £60,000 expenses for parents' home: 'Rumbled' Tony McNulty drops claim... then calls for it to be curtailed
By SIMON WALTERS and GLEN OWEN
Last updated at 12:33 PM on 22nd March 2009
Comments (83)
Add to My Stories
Sudden U-turn: Tony McNulty has stopped claiming the second-home allowance
Another Labour Minister has been caught out in an expenses scandal after effectively admitting he had been wrong to claim £60,000 of taxpayers' money for a property which is his parents' main home - not his.
Employment Minister Tony McNulty performed a dramatic U-turn and announced he had stopped claiming the controversial MPs' second-home allowance after being challenged by The Mail on Sunday.
Even more astonishingly, he said that 133 MPs who, like him, live within 60 miles of Westminster should be banned from getting the £24,000-a-year handout.
Mr McNulty and his wife, chief schools inspector Christine Gilbert, have a combined annual income of a third of a million pounds and between them own two London homes worth £1.2million.
They live together in a house she owns just three miles from Westminster. Yet he has been claiming up to £14,000 a year in parliamentary expenses to help pay for the second house in Harrow where his parents live, 11 miles from the Commons.
The MP has been able to obtain the money because the house he owns is in his Harrow constituency and so qualifies him for the secondhome allowance. Initially, when Mr McNulty was approached by this newspaper on Friday he pointed out: 'It is all within the rules.'
But later, he changed his tune. When it was put to him, 'Do you accept it all looks very odd?', he replied: 'I do.'
He then compared his own unconvincing defence with that made by Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials, who said they were 'only obeying orders'.
Harrow: Mr McNulty has claimed at least £60,000 on this suburban home in which his parents James and Eileen live
Hammersmith: McNulty's wife Christine owns this home, where they both live
'It's not against the rules - though I suppose you might say that is the Nuremberg defence,' he observed.
He then suddenly announced that he had decided to stop claiming the allowance, which he has benefited from ever since becoming an MP in 1997. He said he had 'reflected' on the issue and stopped claiming the grant, officially called the Additional Costs Allowance (ACA), in January.
Asked if he had informed anyone in authority of his decision, either at the Commons or in the Labour Party, he replied: 'No, no one.'
The only person he had told was his wife, he said. He was adamant that it was not a spur-of-the-moment decision forced on him by this newspaper's investigation.
As if to emphasise how much he regretted his actions, Mr McNulty, who is also Minister for London and tipped to run against Boris Johnson for London Mayor in 2012, made an impromptu call for a major purge of MPs' expenses.
He said those who live within 60 miles of the capital should be forced to commute every day like any other worker, and lose their second-home allowance. Currently 159 MPs live within that radius. Twenty-six Inner London MPs already cannot claim the ACA - worth up to £24,000 a year - and of the remaining 133, 107 do claim. Mr McNulty's proposal could save taxpayers about £2million a year.
Mr McNulty said: 'There are senior Shadow frontbench figures who live five miles further away from Westminster than me who claim the lot . . .' before quickly adding: '. . . and that is entirely appropriate.'
Combined wealth: Christine Gilbert owns two London homes worth £1.2m with husband McNulty
His plan received a mixed response from Labour MPs who would be affected. Crawley MP Laura Moffatt said: 'It doesn't affect me because I don't have a second home.' Asked how she squared that with her claim of £61,457 between 2002 / 03 and 2006/07, she hung up.
Dagenham Labour MP Jon Cruddas was more positive. 'This idea should be kicked around, it's a discussion which should be had.'
Asked if he would be happy to sacrifice the £103,117 he claimed between 2002 and 2007, he said: 'If that is the agreed view of Parliament.'
But one MP who asked not to be named, said: 'Just because Tony McNulty has been rumbled does not give him the right to lecture those of us who need the money.'
It is the latest in a series of rows over MPs' expenses. Earlier this year, The Mail on Sunday revealed how Home Secretary Jacqui Smith claims £20,000-a-year expenses by arguing her London 'digs' at a house owned by her sister is her main home, not the substantial house in her Midlands constituency where she lives with her husband and young children.
Until October, Mr McNulty was Ms Smith's deputy at the Home Office. He denied his change of heart had anything to do with widespread condemnation of her conduct.
This is how Mr McNulty has cashed in on the ACA. Shortly after becoming Harrow East MP in 1997, he bought a house in Harrow, which is now worth an estimated £300,000.
He divorced his first wife, fellow Labour activist Gillian Travers and moved into the house with his parents, James and Eileen. By 2001, he had moved to Hammersmith to live with former headteacher Christine Gilbert. Ms Gilbert, also a divorcee, had bought thehouse - now worth about £900,000 --in 1994.
The couple married in September 2002. On their wedding certificate, both gave their address as the Hammersmith house, although in a Commons debate on data protection in 2005, Mr McNulty appeared to suggest his main home was in Harrow.
'I have no copyright on "Tony McNulty".' he said. 'I have no copyright on November 3, 1958 [his birthday]. I have no copyright on . . . [he then gave the Harrow address].'
In addition, he is on the electoral register in Harrow, not Hammersmith, where his wife is registered.
MPs can claim ACA on the mortgage interest payments on a second home - which means those members who have paid off their mortgage can receive nothing.
According to Land Registry documents, Ms Gilbert did not have a mortgage on the property when they moved in together, but Mr McNulty disputed this and insisted Ms Gilbert did have a mortgage at the time.
However, after they set up home together, both took out mortgages on their respective homes. Land Registry records show Ms Gilbert took out a loan on the Hammersmith property with the Bank of Scotland later in 2001, while Mr McNulty took out a fresh loan on his Harrow house with the same bank in 2003.
Mr McNulty said he used the loan to 'pay off some debts'. His wife had used hers to buy a maisonette beneath the Hammersmith home to make it bigger. Around the same time, Mr McNulty's second-home expenses nearly doubled - from £7,400 in 2001 to £14,000 in 2002.
Mr McNulty confirmed his wife is still the sole owner of the home, but he pays half the cost of her mortgage.
The weakness of Mr McNulty's second-home allowance is laid bare by a 'golden triangle of expenses' map which shows how close they are to each other - nine miles - and to the Commons. The Hammersmith home is nine London Underground stops fromWestminster, the Harrow house just eight stops from the Commons.
Enlarge
Scandal after scandal: How The Mail On Sunday has relentlessly exposed how MPs cash in on their expenses
Since 2001/02, the first year for which figures are available, Mr McNulty has claimed a total of £59,998 in second-home allowances. In the past five years he has claimed £52,598.
Assuming he claimed a similar amount from 1997 to 2001 and in the current financial year, he is likely to have claimed up to £100,000 in second-home allowances in total.
Asked if he had told the Commons Fees Office, which pays MPs' expenses, of his decision to stop claiming the ACA, Mr McNulty said: 'I haven't
. . . I have been too busy. I was planningto do so at the end of the financial-year.' Had he told Labour Whips or Party officials? 'I'm not sure it's a matter for party officials.'
Asked what had brought about his change of heart, he said: 'I have always felt some discomfort in claiming the money, to be frank. I decided that it's simply time that I stopped --partly because mortgage interest rates have gone down and partly because I can do without it.'
Asked if he planned to pay back the money, he indicated he would not. 'It's not that I shouldn't be claiming. I just feel a lot happier in myself in trying to make sure that I am as sensible as I can be with taxpayers' money, and that is what I have done.'
He pointed out he had never claimed the maximum £24,000 a year ACA. When he became a Minister and acquired the use of a chauffeur-driven limousine, he stopped claiming for travel to and from his constituency. Nor did he claim goods for his Harrow home using the notorious 'John Lewis list', nor for the council tax there.
Mr McNulty said the Commons should consider following the lead set by Members of the Scottish Parliament. Those who live within 90 minutes of the Edinburgh Parliament, roughly 60 miles, cannot claim for a second home. But MPs have been resistant to such reforms. Last July, they threw out an independent review body's proposal to cut £10,000 from the secondhome allowance for Outer London MPs such as Mr McNulty.
The Commons 'Green Book' which sets out the rules on expenses makes it clear that ACA claims must be 'above reproach' and that MPs 'must avoid any arrangement which may give rise to an accusation that you are, or someone close to you' is benefiting from public funds.
MPs are also 'strongly advised' to avoid subletting or renting out any property on which they claim ACA.
Mr McNulty and Ms Gilbert met when he was a college lecturer and Harrow councillor and she was the council's director of education.
She became chief executive of Tower Hamlets council and was Ofsted's chief inspector three years ago, for which she earns £225,000 a year. Mr McNulty earns £104,050, and both have gold-plated pensions.
Since being elected MP for Harrow East in 1997, Mr McNulty has earned a reputation as an outspoken and popular MP. His robust defence of Labour's record has led to him being used increasingly as a Government spokesman - and yesterday on BBC Radio 4, Jonathan Dimbleby dubbed him 'the Government's flak jacket'.
Last month he admitted he could not survive on the £60.50-a-week Jobseeker's Allowance. The McNulty-Gilberts earn that much in an hour and a half.
KHOODEELAAR! TOLD YOU SO! As we note evidence of “Crossrail scam” preparation-stage Transport Minister [2004-2005] Tony McNulty in the ‘expenses’ news
1205 Hrs GMT London Sunday 22 March 2009
KHOODEELAAR! TOLD YOU SO! As we note evidence of “Crossrail scam” preparation-stage Transport Minister [2004-2005] Tony McNulty in the ‘expenses’ news!
From the BBC web site:
McNulty defends expenses claims
Tony McNulty's spokesman says the MP was "compliant" with the rules
Employment minister Tony McNulty has said he did nothing wrong by claiming second-home expenses on a London house where his parents live.
He received allowances worth thousands of pounds for the property in his Harrow East constituency, which is eight miles from his main home.
He said he made "considerable" use of the home and it allowed it him to do his job more effectively.
But he said "anomalies" in the expenses system did need to be looked at.
'Constituency base'
Details of Mr McNulty's expense claims, the latest to be made about a leading MP, appeared in the Mail on Sunday newspaper.
The MPs' Additional Costs Allowance of up to £24,000 a year goes to MPs from outside inner London to cover the cost of staying away from their main home when carrying out parliamentary duties.
I have said these things need to be looked at
Tony McNulty, employment minister
Mr McNulty told Sky News that he had been claiming money for the home when he had been working there two or three days a week.
He stopped claiming the allowance in January because interest rates had fallen so much that he could afford to pay the mortgage from his MP's salary.
However, he said that he still used the house regularly, especially on weekends.
"I think I can do my job more effectively having my base in the constituency," he said.
Mr McNulty said he had complied with the rules on second homes for MPs from outside inner London but that the system did need reviewing in light of recent allegations.
"I have said these things need to be looked at," he said. "There are anomalies."
"If transparency is not quite there in terms of the additional costs allowance then perhaps we need to look at them again."
Mr McNulty said every MP had to clear their own arrangements with the Commons authorities but the idea that all MPs were "at it" in trying to manipulate the system was simply wrong.
New home
The MP lived in the house in Harrow with his parents before he got married to his second wife, Christine, in 2002.
Mr McNulty then moved into her home about eight miles away in Hammersmith, west London.
Under parliamentary rules Mr McNulty can claim an allowance for a second home in his constituency even though it is only 11 miles from Westminster.
Mr McNulty's spokesman earlier told the Press Association that the MP was "completely compliant with all the regulations around the allowances for second homes".
"There is absolutely nothing irregular in Tony's situation," he said.
Earlier this year Home Secretary Jacqui Smith had to defend her actions after it emerged she had claimed about £116,000 in expenses for her family home in the West Midlands after declaring her sister's property in London - where she stayed four days a week - as her main residence.
Ms Smith said the Commons authorities had approved her conduct while the parliamentary standards watchdog said there was no need for an investigation.
MPs' allowances became the subject of controversy when it emerged last year that Conservative Derek Conway had paid his sons to act as researchers while both were students.
The Commons Standards and Privileges Committee found he had overpaid them and ordered him to repay some of the money.
In February this year, Parliament's Committee on Standards in Public Life decided against launching an inquiry into MPs' allowances.
The committee felt new arrangements for auditing their expenses were "a significant step forward" on their own.
KHOODEELAAR! TOLD YOU SO! As we note evidence of “Crossrail scam” preparation-stage Transport Minister [2004-2005] Tony McNulty in the ‘expenses’ news!
From the BBC web site:
McNulty defends expenses claims
Tony McNulty's spokesman says the MP was "compliant" with the rules
Employment minister Tony McNulty has said he did nothing wrong by claiming second-home expenses on a London house where his parents live.
He received allowances worth thousands of pounds for the property in his Harrow East constituency, which is eight miles from his main home.
He said he made "considerable" use of the home and it allowed it him to do his job more effectively.
But he said "anomalies" in the expenses system did need to be looked at.
'Constituency base'
Details of Mr McNulty's expense claims, the latest to be made about a leading MP, appeared in the Mail on Sunday newspaper.
The MPs' Additional Costs Allowance of up to £24,000 a year goes to MPs from outside inner London to cover the cost of staying away from their main home when carrying out parliamentary duties.
I have said these things need to be looked at
Tony McNulty, employment minister
Mr McNulty told Sky News that he had been claiming money for the home when he had been working there two or three days a week.
He stopped claiming the allowance in January because interest rates had fallen so much that he could afford to pay the mortgage from his MP's salary.
However, he said that he still used the house regularly, especially on weekends.
"I think I can do my job more effectively having my base in the constituency," he said.
Mr McNulty said he had complied with the rules on second homes for MPs from outside inner London but that the system did need reviewing in light of recent allegations.
"I have said these things need to be looked at," he said. "There are anomalies."
"If transparency is not quite there in terms of the additional costs allowance then perhaps we need to look at them again."
Mr McNulty said every MP had to clear their own arrangements with the Commons authorities but the idea that all MPs were "at it" in trying to manipulate the system was simply wrong.
New home
The MP lived in the house in Harrow with his parents before he got married to his second wife, Christine, in 2002.
Mr McNulty then moved into her home about eight miles away in Hammersmith, west London.
Under parliamentary rules Mr McNulty can claim an allowance for a second home in his constituency even though it is only 11 miles from Westminster.
Mr McNulty's spokesman earlier told the Press Association that the MP was "completely compliant with all the regulations around the allowances for second homes".
"There is absolutely nothing irregular in Tony's situation," he said.
Earlier this year Home Secretary Jacqui Smith had to defend her actions after it emerged she had claimed about £116,000 in expenses for her family home in the West Midlands after declaring her sister's property in London - where she stayed four days a week - as her main residence.
Ms Smith said the Commons authorities had approved her conduct while the parliamentary standards watchdog said there was no need for an investigation.
MPs' allowances became the subject of controversy when it emerged last year that Conservative Derek Conway had paid his sons to act as researchers while both were students.
The Commons Standards and Privileges Committee found he had overpaid them and ordered him to repay some of the money.
In February this year, Parliament's Committee on Standards in Public Life decided against launching an inquiry into MPs' allowances.
The committee felt new arrangements for auditing their expenses were "a significant step forward" on their own.
KHOODEELAAR! TOLD YOU SO! Now even a London 'mainstream' Sunday paper, says so too! "Abandon Crossrail project £16 billion "
FROM THE WEB SITE OF THE SUNDAY PEOPLE:
22 March 2009
BLACK HOLE COSTS YOU £25,000
EXCLUSIVE Here's how they might claw it back
By Nigel Nelson Political Editor
Every British taxpayer faces a debt of £25,000 to pay for Alistair Darling's borrowing binge.
New forecasts say the Chancellor needs to splash out £704billion on the nation's credit card over the next five years.
That will leave each taxpayer with a bill equal to the current UK average wage, say economists Ernst & Young.
Advertisement
And it will be FIVE times the amount of debt run up over the last five years, which worked out at just £5,000 per taxpayer.
The predictions from forecasting group the Item Club say Mr Darling will need £180billion this year alone, exceeding his own estimate by £62billion.
They are so significant because the Item Club uses the same forecasting model as the Treasury.
Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said: "This is the worst fiscal mess any British government has created in peacetime.
"Tax receipts have collapsed but there is a great deal of scope for spending restraint."
Lib Dem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable added: "Spending will rise sharply over the coming months as unemployment surges.
"And the steep fall in output will continue to reduce tax revenues."
Last week the International Monetary Fund said the UK will have to borrow 11 per cent of national income this year, the most of all the world's top G7 industrialised nations. Ernst & Young say it will be 1.6 per cent WORSE.
Item Club chief economist Peter Spencer said: "The outlook is bleak. The Chancellor must present an unambiguous plan for restoring the public finances to health.
"We are all going to find ourselves paying a lot more tax once the recovery begins and our children will be paying that tax for a very long time to come."
The researchers say Mr Darling must now pump more cash into manufacturing to save jobs.
In April's Budget he is expected to cut taxes to encourage spending, as The People said last week.
But once the recession is over the Government will have to claw the money back. And we have some suggestions, see right, for doing it.
For instance Mr Darling could RAISE tax by 5p, SCRAP the Crossrail plan for new London train links or SUPPLY school meals free to cut obesity in kids.
Total £704 billion
Raise income tax by 5p £100 billion
Put VAT up to 25 per cent £240 billion
Cancel Trident missile defence £25 billion
Nationalise the banks £44 billion
Health screening for over 20s £75 billion
Trim Government waste £170 billion
Abandon Crossrail project £16 billion
Free school meals to save on obesity £18 billion
Cut civil service pay 1 per cent £7 billion
Scrap widening of M25 £5 billion
Cancel our new aircraft carrier order £4 billion
22 March 2009
BLACK HOLE COSTS YOU £25,000
EXCLUSIVE Here's how they might claw it back
By Nigel Nelson Political Editor
Every British taxpayer faces a debt of £25,000 to pay for Alistair Darling's borrowing binge.
New forecasts say the Chancellor needs to splash out £704billion on the nation's credit card over the next five years.
That will leave each taxpayer with a bill equal to the current UK average wage, say economists Ernst & Young.
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And it will be FIVE times the amount of debt run up over the last five years, which worked out at just £5,000 per taxpayer.
The predictions from forecasting group the Item Club say Mr Darling will need £180billion this year alone, exceeding his own estimate by £62billion.
They are so significant because the Item Club uses the same forecasting model as the Treasury.
Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said: "This is the worst fiscal mess any British government has created in peacetime.
"Tax receipts have collapsed but there is a great deal of scope for spending restraint."
Lib Dem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable added: "Spending will rise sharply over the coming months as unemployment surges.
"And the steep fall in output will continue to reduce tax revenues."
Last week the International Monetary Fund said the UK will have to borrow 11 per cent of national income this year, the most of all the world's top G7 industrialised nations. Ernst & Young say it will be 1.6 per cent WORSE.
Item Club chief economist Peter Spencer said: "The outlook is bleak. The Chancellor must present an unambiguous plan for restoring the public finances to health.
"We are all going to find ourselves paying a lot more tax once the recovery begins and our children will be paying that tax for a very long time to come."
The researchers say Mr Darling must now pump more cash into manufacturing to save jobs.
In April's Budget he is expected to cut taxes to encourage spending, as The People said last week.
But once the recession is over the Government will have to claw the money back. And we have some suggestions, see right, for doing it.
For instance Mr Darling could RAISE tax by 5p, SCRAP the Crossrail plan for new London train links or SUPPLY school meals free to cut obesity in kids.
Total £704 billion
Raise income tax by 5p £100 billion
Put VAT up to 25 per cent £240 billion
Cancel Trident missile defence £25 billion
Nationalise the banks £44 billion
Health screening for over 20s £75 billion
Trim Government waste £170 billion
Abandon Crossrail project £16 billion
Free school meals to save on obesity £18 billion
Cut civil service pay 1 per cent £7 billion
Scrap widening of M25 £5 billion
Cancel our new aircraft carrier order £4 billion
KHOODEELAAR! TOLD YOU SO! Now even a London 'mainstream' Sunday paper, says so too! SCRAP CROSSRAIL!
By © Muhammad Haque
1012 [0948] Hrs GMT London Sunday 22 March 2009:
KHOODEELAAR! noting the evidentially HISTORIC point! That a 'mainstream' 'British' 'news' outlet, based of all places in London itself, can actually see sense and not only that, publish a sensible statement as well! For 5 years we have argued that Crossrail is crass.. That it should not be funded by the pubic. That the money being given to the Big Business looters of the public under Crossrail scam would be better spent on more important needs.… And for 5 years our argument has been treated by the ‘mainstream’ ‘British’ ‘news’ outlets as if it did not exist.. For 5 years we have shown the evidence of the crassness of the Crossrail scam...And for 5 years the ‘mainstream’ ‘British’ ‘news’ media has behaved as if this did not exist… And this morning, we come across this historic occurrence... In the SUNDAY PEOPLE news outfit, which uses the very phrase that we have used for years: SCRAP CROSSRAIL! We shall be examining this phenomenal occurrence in further detail later on today, Sunday 22 March 2009...Before doing so, we publish the texts in which the SUNDAY PEOPLE web site says these two words SCRAP CROSSRAIL !
[To be continued]
1012 [0948] Hrs GMT London Sunday 22 March 2009:
KHOODEELAAR! noting the evidentially HISTORIC point! That a 'mainstream' 'British' 'news' outlet, based of all places in London itself, can actually see sense and not only that, publish a sensible statement as well! For 5 years we have argued that Crossrail is crass.. That it should not be funded by the pubic. That the money being given to the Big Business looters of the public under Crossrail scam would be better spent on more important needs.… And for 5 years our argument has been treated by the ‘mainstream’ ‘British’ ‘news’ outlets as if it did not exist.. For 5 years we have shown the evidence of the crassness of the Crossrail scam...And for 5 years the ‘mainstream’ ‘British’ ‘news’ media has behaved as if this did not exist… And this morning, we come across this historic occurrence... In the SUNDAY PEOPLE news outfit, which uses the very phrase that we have used for years: SCRAP CROSSRAIL! We shall be examining this phenomenal occurrence in further detail later on today, Sunday 22 March 2009...Before doing so, we publish the texts in which the SUNDAY PEOPLE web site says these two words SCRAP CROSSRAIL !
[To be continued]
KHOODEELAAR! first tributes to Daniel Denis Flood, East End campaigner
0250 Hrs GMT London Sunday 22 March 2009: KHOODEELAAR! the campaign in defence of inner city East End of London community against the “City of London-operated Big Business Crossrail agenda...” tributes to Daniel ‘Denis’ Flood. KHOODEELAAR! notes the role Denis played as a spontaneous defender of the community against the wrongdoings of the local Council and all that the Thatcherite agencies do and represent... The passing of Daniel Denis Flood is a serious loss to the community … KHOODEELAAR! will be publishing factual tributes to him in the course of the coming weeks, months and beyond... Daniel Denis Flood was present at many KHOODEELAAR! events against Crossrail agenda.… On a significant demonstration outside the Ken Livingstone ‘City Hall’ in June 2007, ‘Denis’ was able to hand out the KHOODEELAAR! contextual commentary linking Robert Clive with Ken Livingstone's role as a tout for Big Business... Denis possessed a rarely seen ability to take the initiative to stand up, physically, for the community. He showed this on countless occasions outside the Tower Hamlets Council. As he did in other parts of the East End of London, and elsewhere in London. Daniel Denis Flood was dedication and loyalty personified. Beneath the ordinary exterior lived a human being with a huge reserve of genuine care and concern. Denis was a tireless campaigner... Despite having to contend with a surprisingly unsuspected illness, Daniel Denis Flood spent the last few months of his life still wanting to do what he did best: think of others.
[To be continued]
[To be continued]