MP’s expenses - home and away

Jul 1 2009 Rutherglen Reformer

IN HIS desperation to have a go at me, Tommy McAvoy (Reformer letters, June 10) has mis-read Kenny Smith's articles of May 27.

The original front-page article stated the following: "He explained that rules stipulated that the MP had to use his residence in London as his first home, with his home in Burnside - where he lives with his wife Eleanor - becoming his second home by law from 2004-05". This was reinforced on page eight, the article stating: "his mortgage payment rises in 2005-06, as the MP transferred his first house address from Burnside to London".

MPs claim for their second homes, so I assumed that Mr McAvoy would be claiming for his Burnside home over the last three years. If this is not the case (and Mr McAvoy states the polar opposite in his letter despite referring me to the original article), I would like to apologise to Mr McAvoy for misinterpreting the situation on the basis of the information published. Either he was misquoted or he gave the Reformer the wrong information in the first instance; in either case, it is hardly something that can be laid at my door.

As to smearing Mr. McAvoy, there would be no point in this as his record as a hypocrite condemns him without resort to any underhand tactics. Has he forgotten his pathetic letters berating the Lib Dem proposals to privatise Royal Mail, while he now supports the same policy in Parliament? I could fill the page with similar examples, but let's just take one.

In a two-page article in the Reformer and on his own web-site, Mr McAvoy fails to mention the fact that despite earning a huge salary, he claims almost £75 a week on expenses merely for food while an unemployed person is expected to use £64 a week to pay for everything beyond rent and council tax.

No wonder he tries to sweep this under the carpet: he knows most people will be disgusted by such greed. A few years back, Mr McAvoy stated that he didn't see the poverty that was reported in his constituency yet at the same time he was not only coining it in but entering obscene expenses claims for an item that everyone else has to buy from their own income. Hypocrisy? I think so. Let's face it, if the MP for North Glasgow can get by on about £12,000 a year or less expenses, why can't the likes of Mr McAvoy? Is this is just too hard a question for our MP to answer?

David Stevenson,

Cairns Road,

Cambuslang.