Clive Betts Sheffield Attercliffe MP Publishes Expenses Claims

By: Nadeem_Walayat

In advance of the eventual publication of MP expenses by the Daily Telegraph, all five Sheffield Labour MP's have pledged to publish their own expense claims records over recent years which is now transpiring as the following summary of expenses by Clive Betts shows (including links to actual expense claims and receipts:

Clive Betts - Labour - Attercliffe Consistency

A recent poll for the Mail on Sunday puts Labour on just 20%, Conservatives on 42%, Lib Dems at 15%, this would result in a landslide Conservative general election victory of over 200 seats. The situation for Labour is even worse for the European Elections with UKIP level with Labour at 17%, Conservative 30%, Lib Dem 15%.

At the last General Election Clive Betts won 60.1% of the vote (22,250), with Lib Dems second on 17% (6,283) and Conservatives third on 14% (5,239), therefore Clive Betts has a strong majority of 15,967 in a Labour heartland seat and therefore does not appear to be under any serious risk despite the extremely poor opinion polls of losing his seat at a general election.

An analysis of how the expenses abuse came about puts Clive Betts right at the heart of the matter when back in 2001 he tabled an amendment on the additional costs allowance to increase MP expenses from the then £10,000 for mortgage interest which subsequently now covers everything under the sun. The amendment was passed overwhelmingly with backbenchers over riding their front bench advice. Read Clive Betts 2001 speech, Also see which MP's voted for the expenses gravy train.

The outrage of voters was most clearly evident in the recent BBC Question Time programme held in Grimsby as the following exchange between the audience and Margaret Beckett illustrates (after the MP attempted to justify the £72,000 that she claimed in expenses) :

" I am just very Angry Mr Dimbleby,"

"Mrs Becket are you going to pay back the £72,000 that you have taken after your mealy-mouthed answer trying to explain yourself, and Mr Campbell how the hell do you get through £800 a month on food?"

"No I'm Not, because as I pointed out a moment ago...."

The audience boo's, jeers and heckles Margaret Beckett's mealy-mouthed excuses.

The full programme is available now to watch on BBC Iplayer.

Current Yorkshire & Humberside MEP's

• Linda McAvan (Labour)
• Timothy Kirkhope (Conservative)
• Diana Wallis (Liberal Democrat)
• Godfrey Bloom (United Kingdom Independence Party)
• Richard Corbett (Labour)
• Edward McMillan-Scott (Conservative)

Results of Last European Election 2004 - 1573201 votes, (approx 43% of the total number of eligible voters) :

• Labour 26.3%
• Conservative 24.6%
• Lib Dem 15.6%
• UKIP 14.5%
• BNP 8%
• Green 5.7%

European Election Forecast

The European voting system suggests the following results on the basis of the most recent opinion poll.

• Conservative 2-3 seats
• Labour 1 Seat
• Lib Dem 1 Seat
• UKIP 1 Seat
• BNP 0-1

By Nadeem Walayat
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

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Nadeem Walayat has over 20 years experience of trading derivatives, portfolio management and analysing the financial markets, including one of few who both anticipated and Beat the 1987 Crash. Nadeem's forward looking analysis specialises on the housing market and interest rates. Nadeem is the Editor of The Market Oracle, a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. We present in-depth analysis from over 250 experienced analysts on a range of views of the probable direction of the financial markets. Thus enabling our readers to arrive at an informed opinion on future market direction. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

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