Published: Thursday, 25th June, 2009 11:15am

Only Anne excuse?

by Kirsty Gibbins

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A £600 PLASMA television, £620 Ikea bill, new leather sofa and a £20 poppy wreath are just a few of the items claimed on Westminster expenses by East Lothian MP Anne Moffat - but she doesn"t want to talk to the Courier about it.

In total, Ms Moffat, who recently got engaged to Prestonpans joiner Lawrence McCran, claimed £595,256 in expenses over the past four years.

The claims made by every MP between 2003/04 to 2007/08 were made public last week after Freedom of Information advocates won a four-year legal battle with the House of Commons.

Ms Moffat, 51, regularly claimed the maximum £400 monthly Westminster allowance for food, apart from on two occasions in 2007 when she claimed only £100, and regularly invoiced for monthly instalments of £250 in 'petty cash' - though it"s unclear what the money was spent on.

In September 2007, she also charged the House of Commons fees office for £20 for what the forms described as a 'poppy'.

A spokeswoman at Ms Moffat"s Cockenzie constituency office said the money had been used to pay for a wreath of poppies that she believed was used in a local Remembrance ceremony.

Since last Friday, the Courier has made repeated attempts to contact Ms Moffat to clarify certain figures contained within her published expenses.

At least five attempts were made to reach the MP via her constituency office in Cockenzie, and five phone calls made to the Ms Moffat"s mobile phone.

However, the mother-of-one could not be reached for comment and did not respond to the three messages recorded by the Courier on her mobile"s answering machine. Messages were also left with her personal assistant.

Ms Moffat, who had the highest travel bill at £39,744 of any other MP during 2003/04, claimed thousands of pounds for household items, including £2,300 for the purchase and installation of a new boiler, shower tray and new kitchen and bathroom flooring in March 2008 and, in May 2007, received £1,850 to fund a new washing machine, shower door, and the removal of a kitchen unit.

Other household items paid for by the public purse include a £550 leather sofa, a Panasonic plasma television costing £599 and around £85 a month spent on SkyDigital (within her 2006 claims). She also notched up a £620 Ikea bill in January 08 for various items, including a wardrobe.

Her communications expenses including a total payments of £1714.91 for an 'Orange mobile phone' for the period covering April to October 2007 - with the highest monthly bill reaching £517.87 - and BT phone bills of more than £1,000 during the same year.

One unexplained claim, made during 2007/08, was for £458.96 spent on 'camera equipment'.

In April 2006, Ms Moffat claimed £1,825 for decorating at an unspecified address, which included the lounge, two bedrooms, the hallway and kitchen. She spent a further £1,000 on a bed and mattress in the following month.

In October 2007, she spent £1,150.41 on surgery notice cards and the following month £1,874.13 was spent on 42,000 reply slips.

There has been growing public outrage at the fact that the official version of MP" claims contain many key details that have been blacked out.

MPs claimed the censoring of certain details was necessary to protect their security, though unedited versions of their claims have since started to leak to the media.

Like many of her fellow MPs, many of Ms Moffat"s claims have been heavily edited, leaving a question mark hanging over certain figures, such as £639.93 for unspecified 'domestic appliances' in January 2008.

That same month, her "mystery claims" also include £1,529.85 to pay North Berwick solicitors Isabel J Andersons W S for 'employment law matters' in June 2005 and in April of that year received £2,000 under 'expenditure type category five' - though the exact meaning of this claim is blanked out.

Councillor John McNeil, East Lothian Labour party stalwart and close friend of Ms Moffat, told the Courier: 'There"s nothing that Anne has claimed for that is not within the rules and if there was then there is no doubt in my mind that the authorities would have spotted something.

'I"m delighted that the Prime Minister, along with Parliament, has made the decision to have a new fee structure and I look forward to seeing this changes being put in place.'

A local Labour party source told the Courier: 'We"re very disappointed with the way that MPs have behaved.

'Far tighter controls are required because it"s obvious that MPs can"t control themselves.'

However, Councillor Norman Hampshire, another local Labour mainstay, defended the county MP"s expenses, saying : 'Anne has to live in London and its impossible for her to stay anywhere else than that. I think she does a great job here and representing us in Westminster.

'At the end of the day she included the claims for income that she requires for her property in London and to carry out the job as an MP and it is her decision to include what is reasonable.

'MPs expenses will be dealt with by Gordon Brown and the Labour party who will make a change.'

Leigh Howieson, from Poppyscotland, said: 'There are lots of organisations that claim back the cost of a wreath if they are using it in a public campaign.

'We are not going to comment on individual cases but a lot of MPs have suggested making donations to the charity in light of what has happened and we are very grateful for that.

'To lay a wreath is an honour and a privilege and I can understand if people are angry about this as laying a wreath is honouring the sacrifice that men and woman have made and still are making around the world.'

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