Labour MP must apologise for ‘serious’ expenses breach
Labour backbencher Harry Cohen has become the first MP to lose his £65,000 resettlement allowance after committing a “particularly serious breach” of expenses rules.
The Leyton and Wanstead MP, who is standing down at the next election, will also be forced to apologise to the Commons in person after abusing MPs’ second homes allowance.
He rented out the one-bedroom flat in Colchester he designated as his main home, allowing him to make claims on a series of other properties as his main home.
The Commons’ standards and privileges committee report concluded: “We recommend that for committing a particularly serious breach of the rules on claiming parliamentary allowances Mr Cohen be required to apologise by means of a personal statement on the floor of the House.
“We further recommend that the full amount of resettlement grant which would be payable to Mr Cohen when he leaves the House be withheld.”
For an MP of Mr Cohen’s seniority this amounts to around £65,000, the maximum possible, which MPs on the committee say is roughly equivalent to the unfair expenses claims which he benefited from.
It is the first time such a sanction has been imposed on an MP.
The report acknowledged Mr Cohen’s wife’s ill health meant his hopes of moving back to Colchester permanently were dashed, but made clear this was not a good enough excuse for the claims.
“The unreliable state of her health should have been sadly clear to him in the spring of 2004,” parliamentary standards commissioner John Lyon found.
“Had he thoroughly reviewed the situation then, he would have realised that he was not planning to spend any substantial amount of time in Colchester (as evidenced by his renting the flat out in 2004 for a six-month let).”
Mr Cohen had argued his circumstances were “not normal” but has already apologised for the expenses rules breach.
