I see Barbara Follett, MP for Stevenage, is putting taxpayers' money
to good use!  She lives in Knebworth.  Why can't she use the train
like everyone else in Stevenage?

From The Sunday TimesOctober 28, 2007

Buy-to-let Barbie cashes in on MPs' housing perk
Jon Ungoed-Thomas and Holly Watt 

BARBARA FOLLETT, the Labour minister and wife of millionaire novelist
Ken Follett, has claimed more than £120,000 in MPs’ allowances to pay
for a London home, while owning a buy-to-let flat in the capital. 

Follett last year claimed £22,107 in expenses for a central London
flat bought by her husband seven years ago. But it was confirmed last
week that she owns another flat near the houses of parliament that she
could have used instead. 

The MP also has the use of the family home in Hertfordshire, less than
a 30-minute rail commute from London. The use of public funds to
effectively subsidise an extra London home for the Folletts - who are
together worth more than £15m - has prompted new calls for a review of
the controversial housing allowance. 

Matthew Elliott, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “This is
extraordinary. It’s wrong that Barbara Follett should be claiming this
money for another home when she already has a flat she could be using
for parliamentary duties.” 

A spokesman for Follett would not comment on why the cost to the
public purse of the central London flat was so high. He said it was
not practical for her to live in the other flat, which she could claim
expenses on if she lived there. 

“Everything she has claimed is in accordance with the rules,” said the
spokesman. “The southeast London flat is her own personal investment.”

Follett’s housing expenses claims - which total £120,098 since 2001 -
do not include any mortgage interest repayments. MPs are entitled to
claim for insurance, utility bills, furnishings, security costs and
maintenance. 

Barbara Follett became an MP in 1997, after acting as an image
consultant for the front bench. Even now she is paid to act as a
“communications consultant” to her husband, who is estimated to have
sold 100m copies of his novels. 

The Folletts - sometimes referred to by Labourites as “Barbie and Ken”
- were a golden couple of new Labour, acting as enthusiastic
fundraisers and holding parties at their house on Cheyne Walk,
Chelsea. 

The couple reportedly fell out with the Blairs, after they arrived at
a private party at the Folletts’ house, to be met by a throng of
photographers. 

The relationship further deteriorated in 2000 after Ken Follett
described Labour spin doctors as “the rent boys” of politics, but when
Gordon Brown became prime minister Barbara Follett was made pensions
minister. Ken Follett made two donations to Harriet Harman’s deputy
leadership campaign. 

The other properties owned by the Folletts include a country house in
Hertfordshire, a holiday home in Antigua and a property in Cape Town.
Follett has declared in the MPs’ register of interests that she is
letting her London flat. 

Follett is among a number of MPs who have used the allowance to help
fund extensive property portfolios. Among MPs who let properties is
Douglas Hogg, the Conservative MP and former agriculture minister, who
owns three properties in London which he lets. 

He claimed the full amount available – £22,110 – in housing allowances
last year, but has previously said he does not claim any expenses for
his London properties. 

Celia Barlow, the Labour MP for Hove, owns a maisonette and a
one-bedroom flat in London, which are let, and claims £22,110
accommodation costs. MPs can have the choice to claim the housing
allowance on a London property or on their constituency home. 

The Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker, who has campaigned for greater
transparency in MPs’ expenses, said the rules on housing allowances
should be tightened. “I don’t think that an MP should be profiting
from capital gains increase. They should either rent, or stay in a
hotel or return the uplift on property value to the taxpayer. 

“There should be more auditing and spot checks. The issue is that if
you have a house in London, it is difficult to see how you can justify
getting the taxpayer to pay for a second one.” 

MPs are resisting demands from Richard Thomas, the information
commissioner, to oblige MPs to detail how they manage to claim more
than £20,000 on properties when they have no mortgages.