Ealing Central and Acton MP says she's trying to be cheapest MP
Angie Bray said she thought she had paid for a video of her maiden speech after documents revealed she made an expenses claim for £11.25 for the DVD used on her website.
According to Joe Murphy, Political Editor of the London Evening Standard, Bray's claim was 'one of the more unusual items' claimed by London MPs.
Ms Bray says she had requests from many of her constituents to view her first speech to the House of Commons after her win in May.
'It has absolute relevance to my constituents' Bray told ActonW3.com, 'and I pay all the running costs of my website.'
Bray says that despite the claim being accepted by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, she said she'd forgotten that she had claimed for the video, and repaid the £11.25 immediately after she got the call from The Evening Standard.
"I'm trying to be the cheapest MP," Ms Bray said. "I think you'll find all of my costs are unavoidable."
According to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, since coming to office, Ms Bray has claimed a total of £5,346.61, Stephen Pound, MP for Ealing North, claimed a total of £1,972.64 including car mileage, printer costs and subscriptions to newspapers. Virendra Sharma, MP for Ealing Southall, has had no claims.
Angie Bray added that new MPs always have higher expense claims when they first arrive because of all the office start-up costs. She has set-up her Westminster office from scratch and equipped her constituency office - this includes all stationary, headed paper, computers and furniture, expenses that sitting MPs do not have to pay out.
7 December 2010