The Definition of a Main Address

I'm sure most of the interested population were raging yesterday when they heard Baroness Uddin was not to be prosecuted for defrauding the public of £100,000.

Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions, denounced the change in the law made last month. It allows peers to designate as their main home a property they visit no more than once a month. The Lords' House Committee believed a 'main residence' might only need to be visited by a peer once a month.

The Labour peer and donor Lord Paul revealed this week that he would not be prosecuted either. He was investigated by police after he admitted that he never slept in the property outside London he called his main home.

A law rushed through the Lords to protect their own who steal from the taxpayer. A 'main address' requires only one visit a month. A woman, who is in the top 2% of earners in the UK, lives in social housing with a subsidised rent and yet no questions are asked. More 'lords and ladies' submit fraudulent claims and will face no further police investigation. Lords and ladies they are not; they are thieves.

The electorate are being treated as fools and unless we demand more of our MPs then we are fools. For starters, isn't it time we demanded self-regulation anywhere in government was ceased?

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Baroness Uddin and Her Unfurnished Home

This is Baroness Uddin who became Britain's first muslim peer in 1998. The Baroness lives in the East End of London.  Sounds as if that's handy because it's only four miles from the House of Lords.

She bought a two bedroomed flat in Maidstone in 2005 and of course there's nothing unusual in that because people do have homes outside London.  What is unusual is that the Baroness named the flat as her main home to claim almost £30,000 a year in accommodation expenses from the House of Lords. Unfortunately for the Baroness residents from the five other flats in the same block all say they have never seen her there.  They could see through the windows that the bedrooms were unfurnished. 

Last weekend, hours after the Sunday Times had challenged Uddin about her "main residence", the baroness's BMW 4x4 was spotted at the Maidstone flat and members of her family arrived. Yesterday she appeared at the flat but refused to prove it was furnished by showing a reporter round.  Wonder if she's claimed for furnishings via the John Lewis list.  The answer is very possibly yes.

 

She has claimed that her main residence has been outside the capital since 2001 but refuses to say where, despite repeated questions. How can she get away with such behaviour? What are the people who supposedly check expenses doing? This is theft, nothing more, nothing less.

Update:  Iain Dale has just posted about this but adding the information that the East End of London home in which the Baroness lives with her family is a Housing Association property built for low income residents and she pays a highly subsidised rent.  The woman has no shame.

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