Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Getting away with everything they can

So, no Ed Balls in the Sunday Telegraph tomorrow, no Shadow Cabinet. But we do get Sinn Fein (of which, more later) as well as Kitty in the City, aka Kitty Ussher who succeeded Balls as City Minister and is now benefits minister.

Anyway, she spent £22,000 of taxpayers’ cash doing up her terraced house in Brixton. A new bathroom costing £1,460, a carpet for £980 and windows costing £5,610. As she explains to the fees office: “The basic situation is that this house was relatively cheap to purchase but requires quite a lot of work.” This would be the house she lived in for five years before becoming an MP.

“The plumbing in the entire house is strange,” she wrote, “There are pipes that are not used. Can we get them removed using the ACA? The electrics are also odd… I am not proposing a complete rewiring but would the ACA pay for it to be made child-safe? Most of the ceilings have Artex coverings.

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