Ex Labour MP Margaret Moran took £53K in false MP expenses claims; someone should have explained expenses aren’t there so an MP can get shagged!

Dear All

Since the Westminster expenses scandal broke that saw a few MPs and Lords take up residence as a guest of her Majesty, there is an outstanding case which caught my eye.

The case of ex Labour MP Margaret Moran as far as I can understand part of her earlier defence for her conduct for claiming expenses was that she was ‘in a relationship’.

Effectively that means we were paying the upkeep of her partner’s place so she could get shagged in it.

This raises the question, is getting shagged in Southampton part of an MPs duties?

I think not.

Margaret Moran has allegedly have said to have falsely claimed more than £53,000 in expenses while in office.

The 57-year-old is being tried in her absence at Southwark Crown Court after she was deemed unfit to stand trial.

Southwark Crown Court has a bit of a track record of sticking MPs in the clink, especially from the Labour Party.

So things are not looking good for Ms. Moran who is up on 15 counts of false accounting and six of using a false instrument over the claims!

After allegedly ripping off the taxpayer Jurors were unable to return a guilty verdict after it was ruled that Moran was unfit to stand trial for mental health reasons.

Instead, we have a trial of issue; the jury found that she had committed 15 counts of false accounting and six counts of using a false instrument over the claims for parliamentary expenses.

The court had heard that she was able to make a dry rot claim of £22,500 by "flipping" her two homes.

Flipping was just another way to boost a MPs salary by deception, some of the other ‘flippers’ have managed to get off with it and when challenged became quite indignant citing they had been ‘cleared’ by the expenses office.

But as one scam is closed, we see that opportunities lie elsewhere, the latest is the MPs who own London homes renting them out, getting paid for it and pocketing the cash and then claiming for rent for a place somewhere else.

As for Ms. Moran, well she left Parliament in disgrace but apparently not forgotten.

Some who had it all, a privileged position and allowed out and out greed to rule their head!

It is things like this which illustrates why politicians are held in such contempt by the public.

I think an appropriate sentence in her case would be to recover the money, two years suspended sentence and hefty community service somewhere along the lines of 3,000 hours helping others.

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University