EXCLUSIVE: Sarah Teather charged £1,700 of Lib Dem furniture, insurance and telephone bills to expenses

Brent East MP Sarah Teather has been dogged this week by revelations about expense claims for her constituency office and allegations that taxpayer money has been used for political campaigning (all articles here). Scrapbook can today disclose that, in addition to bills for her Parliamentary office, Sarah Teather has claimed for invoices worth £1,700 addressed to her local political party.

Despite strict rules stating that “claims cannot relate to party political activity of any sort” bills addressed to “Lib Dems”, “Brent Liberal Democrats” and “Brent East Lib Dems” were charged to Teather’s expenses, including invoices for furniture, insurance and telephone maintenance. The accounts for Brent Liberal Democrats show that the party pays nothing in rent, telephone, insurance and electricity charges, despite sharing such facilities with the Brent East MP.

A friendly Liberal Democrat source familiar with the office expenses system told Scrapbook:

“The working assumption is that Teather will have to pay at least some of this money back. You simply can’t claim for receipts addressed to your local party – especially when you share an office with them.”

In addition to bills to her local party, Teather has also submitted an invoice that appears to relate to the Election Agents Record System, used by Lib Dem campaigners during election campaigns. Such claims are especially damaging in the light of leaked Liberal Democrat documents describing the “divide between party political campaigning and MP campaigning” as a “grey area”:

Readers should keep an eye out for Guy News later today, which comes live from outside Teather’s office. In developments to come, further problems remain with the accounts submitted to the Electoral Commission.

One would hope that party treasurers would know what a “company” is.

Mirror, Mirror on the wall

What a difference eight months can make…

Sarah Teather, The Grauniad, May 2009

Sarah Teather, Daily Mirror, January 2010

The usual channels carry news that Teather’s office had trouble with the local wildlife today.

A sudden invasion of bears and hyenas can be most troubling!

Sarah Teather: playing it by the book

Thanks to the source who emailed to draw Scrapbook’s attention to the fact that, in relation to this week’s expenses revelations, Sarah Teather has in fact been “playing it by the book”.

Unfortunately for taxpayers, the book concerned isn’t Parliament’s Green Book on the appropriate use of expenses but the Liberal Democrats’ internal manual on fiddling the system, which was leaked to The Telegraph last autumn. The presentation describes “grey areas” in regulations, encouraging its MPs to “be imaginative” with public money and “spend to the limit” (click to enlarge):

Scrapbook and others are praying that this will finally throw the whole issue of Liberal expenses front and centre. Lib Dems, on the whole, escaped the most damaging revelations around second homes while engaging in all sorts of scams, fiddles and chicanery relating to other allowances. The moralising hypocrisy of MPs like Teather, who preached from the pulpit while the taxpayer funded their political campaigning and propaganda, is sick making.

Rumour has it that Teather will soon be fighting on two fronts:

A complaint to the Electoral Commission is in the works.

EXCLUSIVE: Massive election period phone bills cast further suspicion on Sarah Teather expenses

UPDATE 10:12 – MAY DEVELOP THIS AFTERNOON. FOLLOW @PSBOOK FOR UPDATES

Links from a number of blogs, including the acerbic Tory Bear, to yesterday’s scoop on Liberal Democrat office expenses made for record readership figures – and it doesn’t seem that Tuesday will offer much respite for Sarah Teather. Scrapbook can reveal that the Brent East MP’s telephone bills are of significant interest to an ongoing investigation by the parliamentary sleaze watchdog:

• Brent Liberal Democrats not only share a taxpayer-funded office with Sarah Teather but also a telephone system.
• Accounts submitted to the Electoral Commission show that Brent Liberal Democrats have paid absolutely nothing in telephone bills.*
• For the last four years that claims are available, the full amount for each BT invoice has been claimed back in expenses by Sarah Teather, even though the phone number is also listed as the main contact telephone number for Brent Liberal Democrats.

Of most concern, however, are the massive increases in office telephone bills coinciding with local election campaigns, which have opened Brent Liberal Democrats to the accusation that Sarah Teather’s taxpayer-funded phone system could have been abused for party political activities such as phone canvassing:

Teather’s phone bills jumped a massive 50% to nearly £2,500 in the period encompassing the run up to the 2006 local elections to Brent Borough Council where the Liberal Democrats gained 16 seats. The largest bill – for a whopping £1,330 – would cover the period immediately before polling day on 4 May:

That Brent Liberal Democrats have taken a free ride on Sarah Teather’s taxpayer-funded phone system is bad enough, now we look to see whether this was abused systematically as part of an election campaign. The first page of redacted phone bills aren’t a smoking gun …

But the fully itemised bills could be.

*Accounts available for 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008.

EXCLUSIVE: Lib Dem lies over Sarah Teather office rent

UPDATED TODAY: DID TEATHER CHARGE TAXPAYER FOR PHONE CAMPAIGNING?

Scrapbook blogged last week on the continuing sleaze investigation into the office expenses of Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather. The former ‘Baby of the House’ shares her taxpayer-funded constituency premises with the political campaign wing of the local party, despite parliamentary rules that outlaw sub-lets and state that ”claims cannot relate to party political activity of any sort”.

The rebuttal given to the local paper was that the arrangement was not a sub-let but a shared tenancy, which is permitted provided certain provisions are met:

“Sarah Teather MP does not and has never sublet her office to Brent Liberal Democrats or anyone else. She and Brent Liberal Democrats have a joint tenancy, with the division of costs agreed by a surveyor and drawn up by a solicitor.”

Indeed, this is backed up by the latest annual accounts submitted by Brent Lib Dems to the Electoral Commission: “Since December 2003 the local party has shared the tenancy of the office at 1 High Road Willesden with the Brent East MP Sarah Teather”.

Unfortunately for Ms. Teather, however, the same set of accounts show clearly that absolutely nothing was expended on rent for five years.* Perhaps this is some kind of special tenancy where the taxpayer picks up the tab for Liberal Democrat political campaigning?

This raises the question as to who has been lied to here.

Is it the Harrow Observer or the Electoral Commission?

DEVELOPING STORY. FOLLOW @PSBOOK FOR UPDATES!

*Accounts available for 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008.

What planet is Sarah Teather living on?

If stories emenating from Brent East pan out then expenses “saint” Sarah Teather may be forced to dismount her trusty high horse. An standards investigation from John Lyons is currently in full swing. Could the sermonising below and elsewhere return to haunt the diminutive Liberal Democrat?

The allegation made relates to the tenancy on her constituency office, which is also used for political activities by Teather’s local party. Liberal Democrat office-sharing shenannigans and opaque practices such as unincorporated, unauditable “printing societies” have been the obsession interest of Mancunian blogger Chris Paul (though – sadly – not the media) for some months.

Scrapbook has heard whisper that – should Lyons find against her – she may be getting a bill for £75,000.

Ouch.