In an act of Labour/Conservative non-partisanship unlikely to be repeated in the next parliament, or indeed the next five months, expenses angel trougher Sarah Teather had been the subject of something of a pincer movement from red and blue bloggers this week. The coup de grace has been delivered today by Tory Bear who surprised the Brent Liberal Democrat campaign unit at their office. And hats off to Emily Nomates for her Chris Morris-esque skewering of Lord Pearson, giving him precisely the amount of rope needed to hang his racist and patronising self (you almost expect him to refer to her as “dear”):

Like an A-level politics essay in reverse, Scrapbook will round this post off with a quote (part of which was used above and can be viewed here):

“I’m frankly astonished that when we’re in the middle of a recession and constituents are coming to us complaining they can’t afford to live, they can’t affor to pay their bills that MPs are still claiming money that they must know is  morally unjustified” – Sarah Teather

Ahem.

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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.

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Sarah Teather seems to be compensating for her persistent and all-too-convenient absence from Parliament this year with an appearance on tonight’s Question Time. Given this week’s revelations on her office expenses, one assumes her exhortations that “thieves should not be attacked” bear an element of self-interest!

From the look of Tory Bear’s teaser post, tomorrow’s Guy News looks like a total hoot. In other news, Scrapbook and friends have been trawling expenses receipts.

Better get the cheque book out, Sarah.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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1. Liberal Democrat lies over Sarah Teather office rent (18 January)
2. She’s back! Expenses Tory Julie Kirkbride changes her mind (6 November)
3. Guardian awaiting response from “peer” named on encrypted BNP list (20 October)
4. Labour MPs round on Hoon and Hewitt in email exchange (6 January)
5. Will Straw and Sunny Hundal interview Tory Bear (2 October)

Tune in tomorrow for some interesting phone bills!

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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.

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A certain someone has a lot of explaining to do.

Tune in tomorrow.

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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.

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