Fat Slug Salted
Politics, news, comment from The Times and The Sunday Times - Times Online
John Prescott today apologised for "inadvertently" charging the council tax bill for his official London residence to the public purse.
The Deputy Prime Minister admitted £3,830 of taxpayers' money had been paid out on his grace-and-favour apartment in Admiralty House, near Trafalgar Square in London, since 1997.
Mr Prescott, whose department has presided over a hugely unpopular 76 per cent rise in council tax since Labour took power, said the payment was the result of an "inadvertent error... based on a genuine misunderstanding."
The Deputy Prime Minister has a second official residence at Dorneywood, a manor in Buckinghamshire, where the council tax there is covered by an independent trust which owns the house.
He is entitled to claim back the tax on his family home in Hull on parliamentary expenses, meaning that until today the Deputy Prime Minister - whose 'two Jags' nickname has cheekily been upgraded to 'three pads' - paid no council tax out of his own pocket.
No comment by me needed, but I think I will allow myself an extra glass tonight - Cheers!
Comments
What a trash scumbag he is!
Posted by: Hereward | January 12, 2006 7:15 PM
No way! Council Tax on a central London flat for only £3,830 over eight years?
Not a f*cking chance... unless it's a cardboard box at King's Cross.
Posted by: nbc | January 12, 2006 7:33 PM
Methinks Tony and Chums are using the collected works of George Orwell as some sort of instruction manual. First the constant attempts to turn Britain into some sort of Big Brother Land and now the people's leaders acting like the pigs in Animal Farm.
I dispare!
RM
Posted by: The Remittance Man | January 13, 2006 8:21 AM
Why is two pads Prescot not in jail. A reverend gentleman recently got 28 days in chokey for far less. Let's see, a nice jail term for "two pads" would suit very well in this case, sufficiently long for him to be removed as an MP. I won't hold my breath though, justice seems to be in lacking these days.
Posted by: Derek Buxton | January 13, 2006 2:01 PM
Why all the fuss Two Jags as with all public servents???? do not pay tax. Their so called tax is just an accounting fudge, they are paid out of tax, so therefore their tax is just a smaller take of all our taxes
Posted by: steve s | January 15, 2006 8:03 PM