EXPENSES ROW: Scandal shows why we need working class MPs

SO some Members of Parliament from all the main political parties have been caught with their hands in the till. These politicians make you sick. They publicly attack those on Job Seekers Allowance of �60.50 a week, together with those on disability bene

SO some Members of Parliament from all the main political parties have been caught with their hands in the till.

These politicians make you sick. They publicly attack those on Job Seekers' Allowance of �60.50 a week, together with those on disability benefits, as spongers and benefit scroungers.

Apparently the favoured method of MPs for making money is 'flipping', whereby a property is designated as a second home in order to claim for repairs, improvements, decoration, and mortgage interest payments.

MPs can claim up to �24,000 a year for this. The property can then be re-designated as a first home enabling it to be sold at a profit without incurring capital gains tax.

Contrast these greedy MPs with Dave Nellist, now a Coventry City Councillor, who as a 'socialist' Labour MP from 1983 to 1992 took only the average wage of a Coventry factory worker.

The salary of all MPs must be cut to the level of the average wage of a skilled worker. That's about �500 a week.

Where expenses are needed, they should be strictly necessary ones only, similar to what some building workers claim as they travel the country in pursuit of their work.

The expenses scandal shows why we need working class MPs.

JOHN SMITHEE

Wisbech