Falmouth and Helston MPs rush to defend themselves

Ms Goldsworthy, a rising star among Liberal-Democrats born and educated in Cornwall, who earns more than £64,700 as an MP, went on a shopping spree to furnish her London flat at taxpayer’s expense, one item, a luxury rocking chair costing £1,200 and a television for almost £1,000.

Within hours of the revelation, Ms Goldsworthy promised to pay back the cost of the rocking chair and a spokesman for her constituency office said yesterday he understood the cheque to have been sent. She is now publishing all her expenses on her website and say she will go beyond that information already made public.

But the revelations in the Daily Telegraph concerning the 30-year-old, still in her first parliament as an MP for Falmouth and Camborne, showed that in her first year she lived in a house jointly owned with her sisters and during that time claimed more than £300 month for mortgage interest costs as well as a number of other bills.

But it is the bill for furniture, including the rocking chair from the upmarket Heal’s store, that has raised concern along with those for food, said to be the maximum claim allowed of £400 a month.

Ms Goldsworthy said her sister had not profited from the expenses scheme during the time they shared a flat. She later purchased a property in London prompted by the fact her sister was getting married and there would not be space at the flat to accommodate them all. The costs she sought reimbursement for were explicitly related to that move.

She said she did not claim the full cost of the rocking chair and there were other items she did not claim for at all.

Her total second home claims each year from 2005 to 2008 totalled between £21,000 AND £22,000 a year.

Meanwhile, Andrew George whose constituency includes neighbouring Hayle, Helston, and the whole of Penwith rushed to defend his expenses claims concerning his accommodation in London, also used by his daughter, with a lengthy and detailed statement, a full version can be seen below.

“Parliament is clearly at its lowest point. The public standing of MPs has probably never been lower,” he said.

“The allegations about the arrangements I have made for my accommodation in London when I am working in Parliament have, however, been based on selective information, insinuation and a mischievous distortion of the truth.

“I am particularly sorry for my constituents. The surprising newspaper reports have brought unwelcome attention to our area.”

Mr George added he had received numerous messages of support from people in Cornwall and that the stories, which had mentioned his family, had been “hurtful and misleading.”

He added: “In spite of the selective evidence presented, not only did I myself, purchase one third of the flat, but also bought half of the fittings, carpets and furniture, etc. The deeds, primary insurance, utility bills, ground rent arrangements, etc, are in my name. I am the occupant and primary user of the flat.

“I do not believe that, as well as working an 80 hour week, people expect me to live in solitary confinement when I am in London. I am away from my family a lot. It should be up to me not newspaper editors whether members of my family come to stay in the spare room of the flat. As far as I am concerned, they can come whenever they want and stay for as long as I choose.”

He said his daughter Morvah, had had to “go into hiding” because of what had happened and that had disrupted her studies.

Statement form Andrew George – MP for St Ives.

“Parliament is clearly at its lowest point. The public standing of MPs has probably never been lower. The stories, if true, about the ways in which MP allowances have allegedly been used has humiliated all MPs in the House of Commons.

The allegations about the arrangements I have made for my accommodation in London when I am working in Parliament have, however, been based on selective information, insinuation and a mischievous distortion of the truth.

I am particularly sorry for my constituents. The surprising newspaper reports have brought unwelcome attention to our area.

On the other hand, I am very grateful to the many, many people who have sent me letters, messages, calls and who have spoken to me to indicate their support and recognition that they do not believe the insinuations in the national newspaper reports. However, equally, I fully appreciate why some people will feel indignant and outraged at what they see in some of the press and I fully understand, on the basis of what has been published, why some have chosen to express themselves in the strongest possible terms.

The stories which have mentioned my family and I have of course been hurtful and misleading. It took me a while to realise what the Telegraph was trying to insinuate. I think they were trying to claim – without, of course actually saying it - that I bought a flat with Parliamentary allowances for my daughter which I did not use. (Where did they think I was supposed to be living?).

The truth is that, since I was elected in 1997, I have rented various flats but, until 2007, stayed mostly in hotels.

I had secured agreement on the lease of a flat in the Vauxhall area in February 2006 and began to acquire furniture for this in readiness for the completion of that deal, but the seller pulled out at the last minute in May and so I had to go back to searching again.

I eventually took a long lease on a flat in (as everyone now knows) the Docklands area in January 2007. I bought, with my own mortgage, one third of the flat whilst the remaining two thirds were purchased with an interest only mortgage which is my main claim on Parliamentary allowances for London accommodation.

In spite of the selective evidence presented, not only did I, myself, purchase one third of the flat, but also bought half of the fittings, carpets and furniture, etc. The deeds, primary insurance, utility bills, ground rent arrangements, etc, are in my name. I am the occupant and primary user of the flat.

I do not believe that, as well as working an 80 hour week, people expect me to live in solitary confinement when I am in London. I am away from my family a lot. It should be up to me not newspaper editors whether members of my family come stay in the spare room of the flat. As far as I am concerned, they can come whenever they want and stay for as long as I choose.

Everything else in the newspaper reports is either seriously misleading or incorrect.

I have led the campaign in Parliament – six years ago – to introduce legislation to drastically cut the number of MPs from 645 to less than 500 which would save the taxpayer a tremendous amount of money.

I have also pressed other Parliamentarians to accept my campaign to get MPs out of the property market altogether. Accommodation allowances are there to support MPs when living away from home, not for capital gain and personal profit. I know that not all MPs agree with this, but I am pleased that my Party Leader, Nick Clegg, has taken on this campaign.

The manner in which these national media reports have been presented has meant that my daughter - who comes from our Cornish home to London to work and study - has had to go into hiding, having been stalked by the press. It has disrupted her exams. The behaviour of the press has also meant that I have had to ask the Borough Commander in London to undertake a risk assessment and security plan for the area in which I live.

Amongst the deliberately misleading statements and inaccuracies have been a couple which suggested that my daughter ‘worked…for (me) as an intern in Parliament’. She did volunteer as an intern for a few months, for which she was not paid a penny.”

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