MP’s expenses bill tops £4,000

Simon Danczuk

Rochdale’s MP Simon Danczuk has billed the taxpayer for a total of £4,357.22, one of the highest across Greater Manchester, from May until August this year. The figures include just over £2,000 on London Hotel stays, £1,820 on rent in the capital and also claims for travelling on the tube.

Mr Danczuk also claimed back the cost of two and three mile journeys in Rochdale, including two, £1.80 journeys to meet constituents and 80p to attend Rochdale’s mayor making in May. He also put in £9 mileage claim to attend the Socceraid charity event at Old Trafford in June.

The taxpayer was also billed £72.80 for food and drink in Parliament, something Mr Danczuk heavily criticised previous MP Paul Rowen for doing.

Also it was revealed that Mr Danczuk has employed his partner, Ms Karen Burke, as his senior secretary – a job worth between £18,000 and £27,000. This comes after MPs were heavily criticised last year for employing family members in high paid roles within their offices.

Mr Danczuk said: “I am costing the tax payer considerably less than Rochdale’s previous Lib Dem MP, who went on to cost around £1 million during his term in office.”

Councillor Wera Hobhouse said: “I think this is utterly hypocritical. During the election campaign in May Mr Danczuk criticised Paul Rowen for his expenses and told the electorate that he would not abuse the expenses system as the town’s MP. Now he is going straight against his election promises. Times are hard for people in Rochdale and for them to see their MP wasting public money in this way will hurt. To claim for mileage to such things as the Mayor Making and visiting local constituents stinks! Surely this is part of his job of being an MP for which he paid a very good salary.

“As local councillor I have never claimed for a single journey either within Rochdale or any meetings elsewhere in the country.

“With an MP being paid ten times more than local councillors this episode demonstrates that Mr Danczuk is in politics for all the wrong reasons.

“Only a few weeks ago Mr Danczuk had the audacity to claim that he had taken a pay cut. All of this whilst he employed his partner in a high paid role and claimed for such things as travelling on the tube in London.

“I look forward to Mr Danczuk explaining to us how this sits with his election promises. I also look forward to his other election promises of publishing all expenses receipts on his website so we can find out exactly what else our money is being used for.”

Former Rochdale MP, Paul Rowen, was unavailable for comment at the time of publication.