Hazel Blears in the firing line
By politics.co.uk staff
Hazel Blears is facing calls for her resignation after it was revealed she ‘flipped’ her properties three times in one year.
The revelations came in Friday’s edition of the Telegraph, but the communities secretary was already in a tenuous position after an article she wrote for the Observer on the prime minister’s YouTube performance raised the spectre of a leadership bid.
An anonymous MP told the Telegraph: “I thought she would be OK before this weekend. But if it is true that she has moved home three times and avoided capital gains tax too, then it is indefensible.
“It is very difficult to defend that and it makes it very difficult for her to stay. Gordon must realise that.”
Ms Blears re-designated her second home three times in one year, buying goods for several properties at taxpayer’s expense.
She then appears to have avoided capital gains tax when selling one property by telling the Commons it was a second home and HM Revenue and Customs that it was her primary address
She made £45,000 on the property.
“I have complied with the rules of the House, the rules of the Inland Revenue and that’s the situation as it is,” she said.
Stephen Pound, who resigned as Ms Blears’ parliamentary aide last week, spoke out against MPs insisting they are within the rules.
“Acting ‘within the rules’ is not the point,” he said.
“Most MPs are straight as a die but some are as greedy as hell. The whole of politics has been demeaned. We’ve let people down.”
Gordon Brown today apologised on “behalf of all politicians” for the scandal.
And his spokesman said: “All of the individual ministers concerned have explained how their [claims] are consistent with the rules as currently standing. But of course the prime minister has long been an advocate of changing the rules.”
