MP Claire Curtis Thomas reveals her MP expenses to the Formby Times

May 27 2009 by John Siddle, Formby Times

Mrs Curtis-Thomas outlined her Parliamentary expenses between 2004 and early 2008.

A trawl through four years of receipts found that she claimed:

l£36 for a teapot, £64 for four matching cups and saucers and £16.99 for a Phillips kettle in April 2004.

l £14.50 for a House of Commons brand umbrella and £59.99 for a mirror in the same month.

l And 89p for a novelty pencil sharpener and 79p for a laundry marker, amongst other stationery, in September 2004.

Most receipts were for office expenses, including a £147 Dyson cleaner, two £800-plus laptops, desk computers costing up to £1,220 each, a £172 mobile phone and a 45p ballpoint pen.

Provision of water coolers for office staff cost up to £60 a time, until her husband vetoed the cost as “exorbitant”.

She also claimed for security systems, newsletter publishing, newspaper adverts, a shredder, bottled water for staff, rubbish bags and the hire of Merseyside church and community halls for meetings.

In spring 2005 she claimed £2,000 for temporary accommodation when fire officers and police ruled that her constituency office on the top floor of her Crosby home was unsafe. She claimed £4,024 for a new fire escape, only half the actual cost and £2,749 for re-roofing.

Her ‘second home’ claims for the Crosby property also averaged, after mortgage interest, £240 a month for food, £200 for utilities, £200 for telephone and telecoms, £240 for cleaning, £190 for maintenance and service, and £200 for security and repairs.

Mrs Curtis-Thomas said: “I am happy for my constituents to know the details of what I have spent and what I have claimed.

“All my claims have been well within the rules and my priority at all times is to serve my constituents.”