MPs’ expenses: Clegg stirs the pot

Well, that didn't take long.  Clegg is calling for Legg’s expenses audit to be widened to scrutinise MPs who dodged tax by switching their second home allowance:

I think most people expected the worst offences to come under the toughest scrutiny - MPs who avoided capital gains tax, claimed cash for mortgages that didn't exist or flipped their second home so they could claim for renovations on house after house.

Every single MP who flipped, avoided capital gains tax or claimed for non-existent mortgages must be forced to repay the money and held to account.

He concludes:

I believe we need to get MPs out of the property game altogether: they shouldn’t be making a penny of profit from taxpayer subsidies. That’s why I’ve pledged to return the net profit when I sell my constituency home in Sheffield to the taxpayer – I need the house to do my job, but it isn’t mine to make money from, it’s public property.

Clegg won’t be the most popular MP at Westminster today, but he right.  Many MPs have built up a substantial property portfolio with our money, avoided paying capital gains tax and “flipped” their second home so they could continue claiming expenses.

Clegg has highlighted the real scandal and fundamental reform of the ‘second home allowance’ is needed for both existing and future MPs.