#Doc002* - FARAGE WRIGGLES re McSHANE'S REVELATIONS

#Doc002* - FARAGE WRIGGLES re McSHANE'S REVELATIONS

Denis McShane revealed that Farage had boasted of receiving over £2,000,000 as an MEP over and above his income - profit on expenses.

McShane misses the point on expenses
Tuesday, 19th May 2009
UKIP Leader Nigel Farage tackles Labour's Dennis McShane over misrepresenting a remark he made in a speech this week. Here he writes...
Much has been made of something I said in a speech at the Foreign Press Association. That over the past ten years the cost of my being an MEP was probably £2 million.

Dennis McShane has now repeated this as if this was £2 million in expenses that I had received. This simply isn't the point.

Let's have a look at this £2 million, which is £200,000 a year over a decade. I know this sounds a lot but it includes salaries for staff in the regional office and in Brussels, the running of a large regional office, my travel, not just to Strasbourg and Brussels, but to all parts of the UK in my role as leader. Believe me it doesn't leave very much.

However, let's look at the costs of Dennis McShane as an MP over the past decade.
Here's some numbers from the House of Commons:
Pension & Salary
• 2000-01 34,437
• 2001-02 36,793
• 2002-03 39,467
• 2003-04 46,916
• 2004-05 48,024
• 2005-06 48,576
• 2006-07 50,720
• 2007-08 52,245
Expenses
• 2000-01 56,547
• 2001-02 79,974
• 2002-03 85,455
• 2003-04 82,837
• 2004-05 89,191
• 2005-06 98,562
• 2006-07 101,082
• 2007-08 102,800
There are 646 MPs and if we look just at expenses then the average MP will have claimed, in a decade (at current rates) nearly £1.6 million.

We might also note that Dennis McShane himself has claimed similar sums. £1,075,000 that we can see from newspaper reports but upgrading it for inflation it would be more like the average of £1.6 million for the average MP.

The original of this appologia can be viewed if you CLICK HERE

A great deal more detail can be found if you CLICK HERE