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Why weren’t press told of meeting?

8:00am Friday 19th March 2010 in


SIR – I have been corresponding with Peter Luff to try and find out more details of why, when he says he received no questionable overpayments of his expenses, he made repayments of those expenses to Parliament.

He has had one meeting with his constituency association to explain himself but he says there was no demand for a public meeting for the rest of us.

For those of us who were excluded from the meeting I had hoped for a press report. There was none.

Mr Luff helpfully informs me that the press were not excluded from his meeting, they simply did not ask to attend. Can we blame the press? No. In their defence he admits they were not informed beforehand and were not invited. They presumably were not subsequently told it had taken place or supplied with a copy of his speech and a summary of his answers to questions. So much for openness.

John Lumsdon
Droitwich.

Comments(16)

Tulstar says...
9:24am Fri 19 Mar 10

How are we supposed to trust these people when they act like this. If these MPs have nothing to hide, then invite the press, invite the public and gain peoples trust.
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All Peter Luff has managed to do is convince people of something which they already knew. MPs are crooked, fraudulent sneaky cheats.

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economist says...
9:41am Fri 19 Mar 10

Peter Luff claims that "there was no demand for a public meeting for the rest of us." Not true. There were many calls for a public meeting for Peter Luff, his electorate and general public so that Peter Luff could explain fully why the many thousands of pounds that he spent of taxpayers money on items such as excessively expensive china sets, multiple purchases of the same item, painting and decorating, etc., etc. year after year, + why he kept changing his seconf=d home + why he was up for investigation about his adult children using his second home whilst he claimed taxpayers monies to run that home + to answer whether the roof repairs funded by taxpayers on his Worcester home were for the roof directly over the office (or indeed whether his office was on the ground floor and so had no grounds for claiming taxpayers monies to pay for the roof repairs). There were calls for a public meeting with Peter Luff + any interested members of the public and for the media (local and national) to be in attendance.
The meeting was to give Peter Luff the opportunity to explain how each and every claim he made were for items that would otherwise have made it impossible for him to carry out his duties as an MP - ie to convince us that he did claim within the spirit of the rules.
There was a huge outcry about Peter Luff and his claims from MPs expenses as well as for claiming very large amounts of money to employ his wife as his secretary.
Some of this outcry and call for a public meeting, with the media in attendance, was detailed here in the Worcester News ... and Peter Luff himself even contributed a readers comment at the time - he can't claim that he or his office did not know about the calls for a public meeting.

This whole sorry story has just revealed the sneaky way in which Peter Luff operates.

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economist says...
9:44am Fri 19 Mar 10

For the sake of the Conservative Party Peter Luff should stand down immediately. For the sake of the whole electorate Peter Luff should stand down so that we can candidates that we can have some decent level of trust in.

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Tulstar says...
10:31am Fri 19 Mar 10

Perhaps Mr Luff would appreciate a copy of the posts above! I'd be interested to read his response!

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Common Sense says...
11:39am Fri 19 Mar 10

I thought I saw him on TV yesterday, or recently, Chairing a government enquiry over something - I forget what, but important enough to transmit live on the News Channel.

I got the impression he was going up in the world - not down.

CS.

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economist says...
12:23pm Fri 19 Mar 10

Just a reminder os some of the multiple items Peter Luff bought for himself with taxpayers money:
Radio 3

Lavatory/seat 3

Bed/mattress 4

Table/coffee table 5

Set of chairs 2

Microwave 2

Ironing board 2

Vacuum cleaner 2

Kettle 3

China service/ crockery 2

Bed linen 10

Pillows 2

Towels 5

Food mixer 3

Shower curtain 2

DVD 2

Chest of drawers/ bedside chest 2

Sofa 2

Blanket 3

Peter Luff presumably thinks he can explain and convince the electorate/general public that if he hadn't used tax payers money to buy himself 3 lavatory seats that he would have found it impossible to have carried out his duties as an MP. Oh, I was forgetting, Peter Luff thinks there is no need to explain himself to the electorate or general public despite the huge outcry about his behaviour over MP expenses claims. It really does seem to come across as if he thinks that the electorate and general public are idiots and/or an irrelevance.

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MrStJohns says...
2:55pm Fri 19 Mar 10

Economist, he actually brought Radio3 with tax payers money, I can now see why people are annoyed!

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network says...
4:12pm Fri 19 Mar 10

Fluffy Luffy is as guilty as any other MP, if he, like all the rest had not been caught for his fiddling he would have carried on fiddling.They are all tarred with the same brush, its time you packed your bags Mr Luff as soon you like you will not get my vote I would sooner vote for UKIP or the BNP.

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Common Sense says...
4:34pm Fri 19 Mar 10

You see, in their eyes, they were not breaking any rules, because the rules said they COULD claim all these items! As indeed we all would - if the rules said it was OK!
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The issue is the fact that the rules were morally wrong and none, that's NONE of them spoke up about them!
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I trust the rules are going to be adjusted, altered, corrected, or whatever.

Don't hold your breath! I'm sure there will be a way round it...somehow.

CS.

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raq says...
4:42pm Fri 19 Mar 10

I'm probably going to spark off a whole rant of angry posts, but, having attended the constituency association meeting and heard Peter Luff's explanation of his expenses first hand, I think it is a shame that this information isn't public - if it was, it might satisfy some people who doubt him and put this matter to rest once and for all. Just for information, after hearing his explanation the association members backed him virtually unanimously - and by the way I am an ordinary, working class, full time worker, taxpayer and parent of 3.

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Ladyswan says...
12:11am Sat 20 Mar 10

I find it somewhat strange that Peter Luff is getting a kicking and yet the labour MPs were just as bad if not worse!
I note there is no mention of Jacqui Smiths claims for plugs and **** nor Mike Fosters claims
there are some labour MPs who flipped so much I'm surprised they aren't permanantly topsy turvey!

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economist says...
10:44am Sat 20 Mar 10

So reaq presumambly Peter Luff was able to explain why the the huge amounts of taxpayers money he used and spent on items for things like ladders, bread bins, toilet seats, dusters, etc. were necessary and that if he hadn't used taxpayers money to do this he wouldn't have been able to carry out his duties as an MP (that is the agreed 'spirit' of the rules that Peter Luff was fully aware of)? Since you found his explanation was so convincing I'm sure you can present the explanatrion here which will undoubtedly convince everyone else - won't it?
Just a reminder of some of his claims (that were absolutely necessary if he were to be able to carry out his duties as an MP):
Salary: £64,766

Total second home claims

2004-05: £19,435

2005-06: £19,483

2006-07: £20,014

2007-08: £19,694

Item-by-item

Radio £148.99

Clock radio £116.99

Ladder £22.67

Lavatory £256

Bed £708

Kitchen table and six chairs £1,583

Vacuum cleaner £194.37

Microwave £218.99

Ironing board £49.99

Sandwich maker £12.95

Vacuum cleaner £139

Kettle £29.99 (W)

China service (W)

Cookware £18 (W)

Bread bin £18 (W)

The list just goes on, and on, and on, and on....... and he just kept on claiming taxpayers money to fund his lifestyle (e.g. using taxpayers monies - just over £5k to paint and decorate one home just months before designating another of his places as his '2nd' home and then claimed over £3k to decorate that place) every single month for the 4 years under consideration.

An alternative for providing this explanation to the public would be for Peter Luff to finally respond to the calls for him to hold a public meeting (that is advertised in local papers, radio, TV, etc.) with the electorate and general public invited and local and national media in attendance to give the public a chance to question Peter Luff about his MPs expense claims, to clarify about the roof repairs, to ask why it was requested that he be investigated for allowing his adult children to live in his designated 2nd home whilst claiming taxpayers monies to run the home which is a breach of the rules, why his wife is paid such a large salary out of taxpayers monies (and why her job wasn't open to other local people) and why he ignored the calls for a public meeting about his MP expenses claims. You're very confident about his answers so surely he has nothing to worry about in holding such a meeting?
Since the scandal broke out into the open Peter Luff has given the impression that he is scared of facing the public about these issues and that he has a lot to hide.
Surely if he can sort out such a huge and complicated issue as some little road works (though he did seem to take an awfully long time before getting round to doing something about it - and then this is the best thing he can come up with to try and get the public to think - 'wow, what a fantastic MP - amazing work Peter Luff!'.

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economist says...
11:06am Sat 20 Mar 10

How many people in the general public would spend over £100,000 on maintaining a second home over a 4 year period? Perter Luff did - but every single penny came from us, the taxpayers, not Peter Luff.

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economist says...
12:08pm Sat 20 Mar 10

Silly me, that should be just over £83k over 4 yrs + all the other monies Peter Luff claimerd during that period including a large annual salary for his wife from taxpayers monies.

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network says...
4:46pm Sat 20 Mar 10

I would like to know the hourly rate he pays his wife. Also how many hours a day she works, is it 2hours or 3 hours or is it 4hours or a full day of 8hours shift and is this for a period of 5 working days.This position should have been open to the public, not just to aa family member.

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raq says...
1:12pm Sun 21 Mar 10

network wrote:
I would like to know the hourly rate he pays his wife. Also how many hours a day she works, is it 2hours or 3 hours or is it 4hours or a full day of 8hours shift and is this for a period of 5 working days.This position should have been open to the public, not just to aa family member.
Network, I hope you are as interested Mike Foster's wife, along with the large percentage of cross party MPs in the commons who employ their wives as secretaries?

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