08.05.09
Jack Straw charged the taxpayer for double the amount of council tax that he was actually paying for four years.
MPs' expenses: Jack Straw's confused claim:'Sorry for that ... accountancy does not appear to be my strongest suit,' wrote Mr Straw.
John Prescott's lavatory seat repairs, mock Tudor beams and £4,800pa for food
Nicholas Cecil
08.05.09
JOHN Prescott claimed thousands of pounds a year for food and had his lavatory seat repaired twice by the taxpayer.
The former deputy prime minister, who has revealed that he suffers from bulimia, put in a food bill for two years at the maximum annual level of £4,800.
He also used public funds to have mock Tudor beams attached to his eight-bedroom, turreted constituency home in Hull.
He declared this property as his second home as he lived in a grace-and-favour residence in Admiralty House - where he conducted his affair with his diary secretary Tracey Temple.
Mr Prescott claimed £4,800 for food in 2004/05 and 2006/07.
He put in a food bill for £3,200 for each of 2005/06 and 2007/08, but the amount paid out in the earlier year was cut back by Parliament being dissolved for the general election.
In December 2004, a plumber charged £210.79 to "refix WC seat" and for repairs to pipework and taps. Another bill was for £22.50 to "replace linkage between siphon and handle to WC".
The MP for Hull East appears to have had another problem with a lavatory at the constituency home, where he lives with his wife Pauline, about two years later. He claimed £112.52 for a repair bill which included "refit WC seat".
Other bills include £6,772.27 for repairs such as replacing sash windows and £312 to "supply and fix mock Tudor boards to apex of front gable", £2,076.83 for redecorating, partly for a downstairs lavatory, £658 for drain repairs, £580 for a saffron-coloured carpet and £2,479 for rewiring an extension/office area.
The taxpayer also paid £1,187 for the exterior of his house to be repainted in 2004/05, and £609.92 for white goods including an LG washing machine.
As deputy prime minister, Mr Prescott also had the use of the Dorneywood country residence. He paid a "peppercorn" rent for a two-bedroom flat in Clapham, owned by the RMT union.
After losing his grace-and-favour residence in 2007/08, Mr Prescott changed his "second home" to a flat on Albert Embankment that he purchased with a mortgage of £667,737.
He subsequently claimed £19,225 in mortgage interest payments, an expense he had not been charging on his Hull property.
Mr Prescott said: "Every expense was entirely consistent within the rules of the House of Commons."
Unfortunately, he did forget to mention the expenses of his alternate sex life i.e. secretaries looking for higher positions, being wined and dined at discreet, lavish hotels and cruises on the
Queen Mary where he was not only drunk and disorderly but chasing women when he was sober or slightly so.
Other times he could be found asleep and snoring in the lounge (first class)

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