Herne Bay MP Roger Gale receives judgement on expenses appeal
by Martin Jefferies
Roger Gale has had his appeal against demands to pay back
parliamentary expenses upheld.
The Conservative MP for Herne Bay has been told he will not have
to repay nearly £2,500.
The 66-year-old had contested Sir Thomas Legg’s independent
inquiry, which concluded he should repay £2,098 for a mobile
telephone bill and £354 in rent.
He was among more than 70 MPs who appealed to Sir Paul Kennedy,
a former appeal court judge, because they felt the demands were
unreasonable.
Following the ruling, Mr Gale said: “I am grateful to Sir Paul
for studying with care the information provided and for then
reaching the only fair conclusion based upon evidence I had
previously submitted to Sir Thomas.
“I have never refused to repay any sums properly due and had
indicated to Sir Paul that if he found any repayment to be
warranted then I would accept his adjudication without
question.”
He added: “As far as I’m concerned, this has never been about
money but about reputation.”
Mr Gale has always protested his innocence, insisting that the
phone bill was charged before April 2005 when such claims were
allowed by the Green Book, which contains rules for members and has
since been rewritten.
And Mr Gale said the demand for the other repayment came from a
clerical mistake made by Sir Thomas’s team, who claimed he had been
paid for 13 months’ rent on his south London flat in 2008/9.
In fact, although Mr Gale had submitted two claims in March 2009
because of the Easter break, he still only received 12 months’
worth of claims in that financial year.
Monday, February 01 2010