Lord Hanningfield defends 'clocking in' for 40 minutes at Lords to claim £300

 
Lord Hanningfield: Jailed in 2011 for expenses fraud
17 December 2013
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A peer jailed for expenses fraud has defended regularly “clocking in” to claim a £300 daily attendance allowance despite spending less than 40 minutes inside the House of Lords.

Lord Hanningfield — who served nine weeks of a nine-month sentence in 2011 for falsely claiming £28,000 in parliamentary expenses — suggested it was normal practice and that as many as 50 other peers did the same.

The money went on “entertaining, meeting people, employing people”, he said, adding that he was a “full-time peer” who needed to be able to pay his electricity bill and buy food.

There is no suggestion that the former Conservative, who was stripped of the Tory whip in 2010, broke any rules. But Labour MP John Mann called for him to be investigated by parliamentary authorities over the practice.

The Daily Mirror said that on 11 of 19 days that it monitored the 73-year-old peer’s movements in July, he travelled to Westminster from his home in Essex but spent less than 40 minutes in the Lords before returning.

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