Cabinet Expenses Blown Out Of The Water

Brown and his cabinet are under fire after full details of their expenses were leaked to the Telegraph which has blown the lid off the sordid expenses scandal dogging greedy ministers. 

The explosive revelations lay bare the rot at the heart of Brown's cabinet and threaten to bring the fag-end government crashing to its knees in looming elections. 

 

So far Brown and 12 of his ministers are being exposed by the Telegraph including justice secretary Jack Straw, communities secretary Hazel Blears and welsh secretary, Paul Murphy.

Expenses from regular MPs from all parties are expected to be drip-fed in the coming days. 

As the explosive list was revealed, Downing Street was forced to work  overtime trying to explain away some of the claims, which included the bare-faced cheek of Brown paying his brother for "cleaning services". 

Many MPs from all parties were already breaking out in a cold sweat as  five years’ worth of expenses claims were due to be published in July, under the Freedom of Information law. 

That would have exposed the naked truth and allowed journalists and the public to cross-check who was doing what, where, when and with whom and exactly how much taxpayers were having to stump up to feed the luxury lifestyle.

But there was outrage from the media as it was revealed crucial information on the receipts would have been blacked out, making it difficult for taxpayers to get the full extent of the parliamentary scam and cross-check expenses with flipping second homes.

Now it's understood the Telegraph has seen uncensored copies of the receipts, which lay bare the extent of the fiddles  and how some MPs used every trick in the book to exploit the rotten system. 

Details revealed by the Telegraph include: 

• Brown paid his brother Andrew more than £6,000 for "cleaning services" over the course of two years and reclaimed the money from the taxpayer. He also claimed twice for the same £153 plumber's bill - money which he paid back today after the Telegraph pointed out the discrepancy to Downing Street.

• Hazel Blears, the Communities Secretary, claimed money for three different properties in the course of a year, and spent almost £5,000 on furniture in just four months after buying the third property.

• Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, claimed back twice as much for his council tax as he had actually paid. He later repaid the money and apologised for the error.

• Paul Murphy, the Welsh Secretary, splashed out more than £3,000 on a new hot water system for his second home, explaining in a letter to the parliamentary fees office that his water was too hot.

Desperately trying to put a lid on the whole sordid affair and limit the damage ahead of July's publication, Brown suffered a humiliating commons defeat last week when he was forced to drop his half-baked plans  for a quick fix, announced on his foolish YouTube video,  following  a whole raft of sordid expenses scandals involving his greedy ministers.

Earlier today two homes secretary Smith was accused of further expenses fiddles amid claims she'd refurbished her family home in her constituency, claiming her "main" home was a spare bedroom in her sister’s London house, putting her job further on the line.

Wary of rivals stealing a march ahead of publication, the Telegraph is playing the whole exclusive close to its chest, with more details due to be revealed in tommorrow's splash. 

As for the mole-hunt and who leaked the damaging disk in the public interest, Benedict Brogan now with the Telegraph from the Mail will be keeping that one very close to his chest.