Lords A-Leaping Onto The Gravy Train

Baroness Hollis Of Heigham, looking well fed and smug.

More from the Times about our Noble Peers.

"We can also disclose that a couple who both sit in the Lords, Lord Howarth of Newport and Baroness Hollis of Heigham, are charging the taxpayer £60,000 a year for living in a £1.3m property in London which has no mortgage.

The rules of the House of Lords say peers whose main residence is outside London may claim up to £174 a day, “where they have incurred expenses of overnight accommodation in London or as a contribution towards the cost of maintaining a London residence in connection with their parliamentary duties”.

Howarth and his girlfriend Hollis, both former Labour ministers, have been claiming an annual total of £60,000 in overnight allowances.

Howarth has owned a £1.3m house in Westminster since 1995, but weeks after becoming a lord in 2005 he bought a second home in Norwich for £445,000 which entitled him to claim the allowance for peers living outside London. The Norfolk house is next door to Hollis’s home.

Since then the couple have claimed more than £160,000 for overnight subsistence. In October 2007 Hollis became a joint owner of the London property and the mortgage was paid off. The couple continued to claim the maximum for living in the London house that financial year, even though there were no more mortgage payments. Howarth and Hollis were unavailable to comment yesterday."

Oh well, I suppose they deserve it all after a lifetime of public service, making this country great and prosperous, ensuring well paid jobs for everyone and a world class health service together with an education system that is the envy of the world.

The Penguin