STARMER 'ON A LEARNING CURVE'

Ex-Labour minister Barbara Follett has given her view on Keir Starmer's faltering leadership.  Appearing on Alastair Stewart & Friends alongside her husband Ken, it was put to her that the Prime Minister was 'getting away with everything partly because Starmer isn't up to the job of challenging him'.  That was the expressed view of journalist Trevor Kavanagh and Follett did not disagree, saying that Starmer was still on 'a learning curve'.  Having described how Blair's Labour were ready for government in 1997, Follett appeared set to declare that the same couldn't be said for Starmer's Labour, but she was interrupted by the host.

Click below for the clip.

Barbara Follett was the MP for Stevenage between 1997 and 2010.  She served in various ministerial roles in the Brown government before standing down prior to the 2010 general election after she was implicated in the expenses scandal.  Follett had blown more than £25,000 on private security patrols outside her second home because she 'didn't feel safe' in London.  She later agreed to pay back almost £33,000 of expenses, both for the security patrols and other dubious claims.

As for Follett's brief assessment of Starmer being 'on a learning curve', he has been Labour leader now for 17 months and a frontbencher for more than six years.  Put into context, Blair was Labour leader for less than three years before he swept to power.  Whatever Starmer needs to learn, if he is to achieve a similar feat he really ought to have started learning it by now!

QT FROM TUNBRIDGE WELLS

Once again this is not an inspiring line-up from the Beeb and has a decidedly woke feel about it.  The only Leave voter on the panel is the Telegraph's Tim Stanley.  There's almost certainly going to be a clash between the Health Secretary and the GP, although Hancock is so painfully dull it's not going to set the screen alight.  Dr Xander implored his social media followers to chuck the Tories out at the election for the 'sake of the NHS', although his opposition to Brexit was probably a factor too.

The sneering Beckett should have been put out to pasture years ago.  At 77 she's still clinging to the Westminster gravy train and almost old enough to be competing for a shot at Donald Trump.  Here's a clip from one of her previous Question Time appearances.  This was back in 2009 at the height of the expenses scandal, it didn't go too well for her...

PIGS AT THE TROUGH: BARRY GARDINER

Born: Glasgow, 1957
First elected to Parliament: 1997, for Brent North
Expenses fame:  Profiteering

Softly spoken butter wouldn't melt Barry Gardiner, sometimes referred to as 'whispering' Barry Gardiner.  He is one of the few front benchers to have served under the entirety of Corbyn's leadership.  Born into a Glaswegian family, Barry's father was an amateur footballer and his mother a medical doctor.  He was grammar school educated and went on to earn a masters degree at the University of St Andrews.  A religious man, Barry intended to become an Anglican vicar, but gradually shifted into politics as his education progressed from Scotland to Harvard and Cambridge.  His relocation to Cambridge saw him join the Labour party and in 1988 he was elected to the local council.  He became the Mayor of Cambridge four years later and in 1997 was elected MP for Brent North.

Gardiner was implicated in the expenses scandal after having personally profited from the sale of his second home - at taxpayers' expense.  The fact that he had claimed for a second home was also controversial, as his constituency was located less than ten miles from Parliament.  The alleged scam was set up in 2002 when Gardiner purchased a large detached house in Chorleywood, a further 14 miles from Westminster.  This more than doubled the distance of his commute, although it was still only a 45 minute train journey.  The following year he purchased a flat in Pimlico, one mile from Parliament.  He designated this as his second home.

Gardiner bought the flat for £246,500 and over the next four years spent £11,000 of taxpayers' money renovating it.  In addition to paying decorators, plumbers and electricians, he claimed for a new kitchen as well as smaller items, such as £235 on Harrods bed linen and £248 for a Christopher Wray lamp.  This ran contrary to expense guidelines that stated that "extravagant and luxurious items" should be avoided.  He also appeared to flout rules that stated that the additional costs allowance should not be spent on "enhancing" the property.  In addition to the home improvements, Gardiner claimed around £1,000 each month in council tax and mortgage interest.

When the flat was sold in 2007 it went for £445,000, making Gardiner a cool profit of £198,500.  He defended his actions by claiming that the taxpayer had actually benefited because he had paid 40 per cent capital gains tax on the profit.  In response to the scandal he stated:  "If you do your arithmetic you may well conclude that the public purse has actually benefited from my purchase of a property rather than renting during this period."  However, he needn't have claimed for a second home at all due to the close proximity of his main home and constituency.  Gardiner was blatantly milking the system.  He was also accused of misleading the public when he claimed that he spent half the week "not seeing" his wife and children, despite the fact his wife was on his payroll as a secretary/office manager.

Barry's property shenanigans did not end with the Pimlico sale.  In 2008 he purchased another flat, this time within his own Brent North constituency (for the first time).  In buying this property he claimed £11,596 from the taxpayer in order to cover stamp duty and legal costs.  Once again he embarked on costly renovation and claimed £2,700 for building work and decorating costs.  Before he purchased this flat he had billed the taxpayer for hotel stays of up to £295 per night.

When the Telegraph exposed Gardiner in 2009 he was unrepentant and said he had acted "within the rules".  However, he was later asked to repay the paltry sum of £174.17 in relation to a mortgage interest claim.  What he actually paid back was more than £15,000.  A guilty conscience?

PIGS AT THE TROUGH: JACQUI SMITH

Born:  Malvern, 1962
First elected to Parliament:  1997, for Redditch
Left Parliament:  2010, lost her seat in general election
Expenses fame:  Home flipping and pornos

Jacqui Smith was a member of the Labour government for almost ten years and rose to the position of Home Secretary under Gordon Brown.  Before entering Parliament she was a schoolteacher, as were her parents before her.  She was selected for the newly created seat of Redditch via an all-woman shortlist and won it in the Labour landslide of 1997.

Smith's involvement in the expenses scandal first came to light in February 2009.  She was accused of 'flipping' her primary home designation in order to maximise allowances for her second home.  At that time MPs were allowed to claim for a second home, so they could perform their duties both in Westminster and their constituency.  Smith's decision to name her sister's house as her 'main home' allowed her to claim a whopping £116,000 towards her 'second home' back in Redditch.  The designation directly contradicted her own website which stated that the MP "lived in Redditch".

The controversy came to light when her neighbours told journalists that she only spent 2-3 nights at the London property each week.  Smith denied these claims and said that she had done nothing wrong.  The following month it was revealed that among the expenses claimed for her Redditch home were two adult films.  These were among five pay-per-view films that had been claimed for, despite the fact she was in London at that time.  This time Smith apologised, as did her husband, who said sorry for 'embarrassing his wife'.  She said the claim was a 'mistake' and agreed to pay it back, but that she had no intention of resigning.  The Sunday Sport responded to the latest revelations by sending a glamour model around to the property with a stash of porno mags and DVDs as a 'donation' for Smith's husband.

In relation to her 'second home' Smith claimed for everything from a £1,000 fireplace and a £550 kitchen sink to an 88p bathplug.

Despite the embarrassment, Smith was defended by Gordon Brown at the time.  However, less than three months later it was announced that she would be leaving the Cabinet and returning to the back benches.  That was where she remained until 2010 when she lost her seat to the Conservatives.  The expenses scandal may well have contributed to the result.  Seven months before the election she was found to be in breach of the rules on second home allowances.  The Parliamentary Standards Commissioner accepted her defence that she had spent more time in London, but decided that this should still have been regarded as her second home and not Redditch as she had designated.

She was not asked to repay any money, but ordered to make an apology to the House of Commons.  When Smith made her 'apology' she only said sorry for the pay-per-view expenses and went on to proclaim herself innocent of home flipping.

Smith later claimed that she was unfairly targeted during the expenses scandal because she was "a woman" and that she became the "poster girl" for the scandal.  She maintains that she did nothing wrong in the designation of her homes.

ANGELA'S COMEUPPANCE

The odious member for Penistone and Stocksbridge certainly appears to have got her comeuppance.  Angela Smith, of ardent remoaner fame, has lost a no confidence vote in her constituency.  Not so much to do with the fact she has consistently opposed Brexit in a massive Leave constituency, but her criticism of the Great Leader.  Dissent will not be tolerated in Corbyn's Labour and the Momentum deselection train last night rolled into the steel city and struck her a severe blow.

Ironically she was one of the MPs who backed a vote of no confidence in Corbyn two years ago and supported her namesake Owen Smith in the subsequent leadership contest.  Clearly Angela has had this coming a while.  Since then she has dared to question the re-nationalisation policies of the Great Leader and she is currently peddling a 'People's Vote' petition addressed directly to Corbyn.

It is this ardent and unapologetic remoaning - in the face of a 61% Leave constituency - that leads us to maintain dry eyes when it comes to her current predicament.  Whereas we have struck a sympathetic chord with some centre-ground MPs attacked by Momentum's deselection campaign (Frank Field, Kate Hoey etc), Angela Smith is a vile individual who deserves no such sympathy.  In addition to her Brexit blocking record in the Commons, she has also attempted to conceal her expenses.  In 2007 she voted against publicising MPs' expenses and it soon transpired why - she had claimed almost £11,000 in just two years, including four beds for a ONE BEDROOM FLAT!

Smith has responded to the deselection threat by denouncing her detractors as a "cabal of hard left members", an accurate description, but also vowed to fight on and "prioritise our area and my constituents".  Like you prioritised their Leave vote Angela?

PIGS AT THE TROUGH: YVETTE COOPER

Born:  Inverness, 1969
First elected to Parliament:  1997, for Pontefract & Castleford
Expenses fame:  Home flipping

Yvette Cooper is the epitome of a career politician, an elitist ivory tower denizen that dictates our lives, but does not practice what she preaches.  Yvette, and husband Ed, were subject to various claims during the expenses scandal, the most notorious of which was the fact they 'flipped' the designation of their second homes THREE times within two years.

At the time of the scandal MPs outside London were entitled to a generous second home allowance, so they could perform their Westminster duties in addition to their constituency work.  This 'allowance' was a staggering £24,000 per year.  What's more, regardless of the fact two MPs may be married and living together, both could individually claim the full allowance, something which Balls and Cooper made the most of.

After she was first elected to Parliament, Cooper designated her Castleford home as a second home.  After her husband was elected in 2005 she 'flipped' the designation to their South London property, despite this clearly being their main home (their children attended London schools).  They had both realised they could claim much more against a London house than they could on a Yorkshire house.  When they bought a larger property in North London in 2007 they kept London as their second home.  It was a no brainer, obviously.  They also claimed a whopping £2,000 for the removal vans!

Cooper and Balls were later exonerated of any wrongdoing, as they had acted within the rules.  A relatively 'small' overpayment of £1,363 was to be paid back.  This probably related to two monthly claims of £1,300 (each) for mortgage interest, at odds with their mortgage statement of only £733.

The pair were also found to have claimed for 375 journeys taken by their children between Castleford and London over a three year period, totalling more than £14,000.  This exceeded the allowance, which stood at a maximum of 30 journeys per year per child (or 90 journeys as they have three children).  They were not sanctioned for this either.

In 2007/08 Yvette Cooper claimed £152,659 in expenses and allowances alone.  However, to understand the full scale of pigtroughery, one must remember that all this took place while she and Ed were earning ministerial salaries of £141,866 - each.  They also have ministerial pension pots to look forward to later in their comfortable lives.  All in all, quids in!