MP caught in expenses row wins vital backing (From Ludlow Advertiser)

MP caught in expenses row wins vital backing

8:00am Thursday 4th June 2009

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TENBURY MP Bill Wiggin seems secure for the foreseeable future with the confirmation this week of full support from his constituency association over the £11,000 form-filling “error” that pitched him into the parliamentary expenses scandal.

That backing, reinforced at national level by Tory leader David Cameron, should be enough to see Mr Wiggin through to the next General Election, where two independent candidates are already preparing to stand against him on a transparency ticket.

Christopher George, chairman of North H e r e f o r d s h i r e Conservative Association, said that Mr Wiggin enjoyed the “full support”

of the association’s management team after admitting the mistake, repeated 23 times, that had him claiming mortgage expenses meant for his home in London – where he, his wife and their three children live during the week – in the name of the Herefordshire home he calls his first.

Mr Wiggin rejected calls for him to stand down and face re-selection made at a public meeting called to explain his expenses saying he wasn’t going to go if he wasn’t guilty.

The audience that packed Leominster’s Rankin Club on May 27 did hear the MP confirm that the family lived in London during the working week at the house on which he took out the 2004 mortgage mistakenly attributed in claims forms to the Herefordshire address.

The payments continued for nearly two years totalling £11,514 before the Parliamentary Fees Office spotted the error and it was corrected.

Mr Wiggin made no money from the mistake and thought no more of it until the payments were exposed by the Daily Telegraph in its ongoing coverage of the parliamentary expenses scandal.

This Saturday sees the first of a series of special surgeries the MP is now holding to take questions from those who could not get into the Rankin Club for the public meeting proper, due to weight of numbers.

Appointments can be made through the Conservative association’s offices at 8 Corn Square, Leominster, on 01568 612565 or e-mail office@nhca. org.uk As a result of boundary changes that have moved Tenbury into the new West W o r c e s t e r s h i r e Constituency, Mr Wiggin would not represent the town after the next General Election in any case.

The Tory candidate for the seat will be Harriett Baldwin, who said: “I understand that people are very angry about the expenses issue and I want reform, with all expenses published, so that it is clear what MPs are claiming for.”

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