British MPs told to repay expenses

LONDON (AFP) - British lawmakers were ordered Thursday to repay more than one million pounds of expenses, after an investigation into a scandal, which rocked parliament slammed a “deeply flawed” system.
The long-awaited audit by former civil servant Thomas Legg said lawmakers must return 1.1 million pounds in payments received for loans on second homes, gardening and cleaning expenses.
Legg found that more than half of all members of parliament (MPs) made inappropriate or excessive claims.
The scandal reached a peak last year when one MP for the main opposition Conservatives, Peter Viggers, was found to have claimed more than 1,600 pounds for a duck house to stand in a garden pond.
It was revealed Thursday that Viggers must repay a total of 13,245 pounds. But the largest repayment was 42,458 pounds from Barbara Follett, an MP from the ruling Labour party who is married to best-selling novelist Ken Follett.
Most of the money was spent on security patrols at the Folletts’ second home, as well as more than 4,500 pounds for what the audit said was an “excessive” six telephone lines at the property.
Follett, a minister with responsibility for local government, said she had repaid the entire sum, but argued she had claimed the amounts “in good faith in accordance with the rules at the time”.
“This has been a sad and sorry episode in Britain’s political life which I deeply regret,” she added.
Many other MPs are unhappy at the investigation, arguing that Legg has effectively imposed retrospective rules and spending limits.