So David Wilshre, the rather unpleasant Tory MP has been thrown out of Parliament because he paid money to a company controlled by him.  (Yes, I know he’s the same party as me, but it’s about theft not party identity)

(Photo courtesy of Guido Fawkes).

Oddly this issue was about the misuse of constituency office allowances and not about second home allowances, so it’s not covered by all the letters that MPs are getting.  This set of abuse is going to be examined later by Sir Thomas Legg.

So which MP do we know who has diverted public money intended for his constituency office to an otherwise cash-strapped Ipswich Labour Party essentially controlled by him?  Why it’s no other than our own Chris Mole.

I won’t hold my breath, Mole’s not a critic.  Unlike the Norwich North MP Iain Gibson, Chris Mole is a pliant member who won’t raise a peep against his party leadership, even when the most important hospital in his constituency is being systematically run down.

The wages of sin are death.  The wages of ignoring your constituents are promotion.

I said that there where some interesting items on Chris Mole’s expenses.  One of the themes (possibly the theme) of Chris Mole’s expense claims has been the way in which he cross subsidises the Labour Party at a number of different levels.  In effect it means we have state funding of political parties, or more accurately of the Labour Party, in Ipswich.

The most blatant way in which this was done was the payments to the Ipswich Labour Party of £500 per month for use of a room in the Labour Party offices.*  This is going to be the equivalent of the third of the salary of a full time election agent (who also happens to have a council seat and so a nice swag of expenses).  This gives Labour a massive advantage in a marginal seat where none of the other parties can afford this.

So why can’t Chris Mole borrow an office in the Ipswich council building, like David Blunkett does in Sheffield?  As well as being cheaper for the taxpayer he will be in far closer contact with council officials, maintain a non partisan presence and be able to use the receptionist and switchboard services that the council has.  Of course you won’t be able to subsidise your party political machine, but that’s hardly the point of taxes, is it Mr Mole?

*  To see one example of this go to the 2008 incidental expenses entry:

http://mpsallowances.parliament.uk/mpslordsandoffices/hocallowances/allowances-by-mp/chris-mole/Chris_Mole_0708_IEP.pdf#page=[115]

You may have to go to page 115 manually, depending on your browser. 

There you will see £3000 rent.  This is for six months, so you can divide this by six to get £500 per month.