SCOTLAND'S most senior Catholic clergyman has attacked the greed of politicians as he stepped into the row over the lavish expenses claimed by Westminster MPs.
Cardinal Keith O'Brien is today expected to call on politicians to live up to the high standards that the public expects when he comments for the first time on the Westminster allowance system that has undermined trust in politicians.
In a homily
to be preached by the Cardinal at St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, O'Brien will warn of the dangers of the "love of money".
He will say: "People have been shattered at what we might call the fall from grace of many called to serve in politics and public life, with money at the root of many difficulties.
"On behalf of very many suffering and bewildered people, I call on those in public service of whatever kind who have failed us to reclaim the high standards which we expect of them and to give the example required of them to all in our country, however difficult it might be to implement this."
O'Brien's intervention comes as the expenses row continues unabated with yet more revelations about the claims made by MPs.
Last night it emerged that Conservative leader David Cameron paid off a loan on his London home shortly after taking out a £350,000 taxpayer-funded mortgage on his constituency house.
The Tory leader took out the mortgage to buy a house in Oxfordshire in August 2001, two months after winning his Witney seat in the General Election. By nominating it as his second home, he was able to claim for the mortgage interest payments under the Commons' Additional Costs Allowance (ACA).
Just four months after securing the £350,000 mortgage, Cameron paid off the £75,000 loan on his London home. Cameron has not broken any rules, but financial experts claim that taxpayers could have been saved £22,000 between 2002 and 2007 had he kept the loan on his London home and borrowed £75,000 less on the Oxfordshire property.
Labour MP Frank Cook apologised for attempting to claim for a £5 donation he made during a church service to commemorate the Battle of Britain. Cook said: "I don't know how it happened, it is wrong that it happened, I can't explain it and I am sorry that is has happened. I can't give any better explanation because I don't have one." The Commons' authorities rejected his claim.
And Charles Kennedy, the former Liberal Democrat leader, claimed taxpayer-funded expenses for two teddy bears and mints from the House of Commons shop.
Kennedy said the claim had been submitted in error and the money repaid earlier this month.
Yesterday, shadow justice minister Eleanor Laing, who did not pay capital gains tax on the profit from selling her taxpayer-funded second home, insisted she had followed Inland Revenue rules.
Laing was reported to have avoided a £180,000 bill by designating her London flat as her "principal" residence for tax purposes. It was claimed that she made £1 million profit on the sale of the property, which was listed as her second home with the Commons authorities and therefore eligible for allowances.
Laing was reported to have claimed more than £80,000 from the public purse towards mortgage interest and service payments on two flats she bought in Westminster, even though her constituency home was less than an hour away.
She decided it would have been wrong under the HM Revenue and Customs' Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 to pay capital gains tax on her London flat, because it was considered her principal residence under HMRC rules.
The fresh revelations about MPs' expenses arrangements came as the former Labour minister Elliot Morley, the Scunthorpe MP, became the 13th MP to quit following the scandal. Morley – who claimed £16,800 of taxpayers' cash for a mortgage he had already paid off – announced he was stepping down at the next election.
David Cameron has said that the police ought to investigate MPs who used taxpayers' money to pay for "phantom mortgages".
