Brown says sorry for payments to MPs
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Gordon Brown has apologised for members of his Labour party who received public money for things they didn't need. He has apologised because a British newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, wrote articles about the money paid to MPs. The worst examples of wasting public money have come from all three main political parties. Millionaire Labour politician Barbara Follett was paid more than £25,000 for security at her home, the Conservative minister Alan Duncan was paid £4,000 for gardening costs, and the ex-leader of the Liberal Democrats, Menzies Campbell was paid £10,000 to decorate his flat. Smaller claims were for things like biscuits, dog food and changing of light bulbs.
British MPs are allowed to claim for the cost of living in London when they come from other parts of the country, but the majority of journalists and the public don’t think it’s fair that MPs can use these rules to make a profit. At first, MPs were angry about the articles in the newspaper, and wanted the police to find and punish the person who sold the documents to The Daily Telegraph. But now it seems that many of them have promised to pay back money for claims that weren’t fair.
Although there are a number of things British MPs can receive money for, their basic salaries are not high compared to some other European countries. Politicians can earn a lot of money in Italy for example, where MEPs earn £137,113 per year, twice as much as the Germans and the British, three times the salary of the Portuguese, and four times that of the Spanish.
Have you have finished reading the article? Now try and answer these questions:
1) Politicians from which party are responsible for claiming too much money?
(a) The Labour party
(b) The Conservative party
(c) All three main parties
2) What have the politicians done as a result of the newspaper article?
(a) Nothing.
(b) Given back money which was claimed unfairly
(c) Organised for the man who sold the article to the newspaper to be arrested.
Here are the answers:
1) c - "The worst examples of wasting public money have come from all three main political parties."
2) b - "...it seems that many of them have promised to pay back money for claims that weren’t fair."
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