UK Home Secretary ‘milks’ expenses system to cover household bills

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News websites
3 Apr 2023 15:40

While local Brits suffer from dire economic woes, the UK Home Secretary relies on taxpayers for her million-dollar home.

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, left, and Britain's Home Secretary Suella Braverman, center, visit the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), in Leeds, northern England, April 3, 2023 (AP)

UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman "milked" the expenses system to have taxpayers pay for her domestic expenses at a time when the average person is having difficulty making ends meet due to the cost-of-living crisis, according to British media reports.

The senior Tory minister claimed nearly £25,000 in five years for her London home, despite living rent-free in her parents' house and as the nation struggles with skyrocketing energy prices, according to a damning report that was published by The Mirror newspaper on Sunday.

Millions of people affected by the escalating cost-of-living crisis are sure to be incensed by the latest scandal involving the home secretary. "Even if it is within the rules, it isn't within the spirit of the rules. It just shows how out of touch some Conservative MPs have become," Lib Dem Chief Whip Wendy Chamberlain said.

The probe has shown that Braverman, who is accused of abusing the system, relies on public assistance to pay the expenses at her £1.2 million family home in Bushey, Herts.

Braverman, who earns an additional £67,505 on top of her £84,144 MP salary, explained to watchdogs that she "fully funds" the Fareham, Hampshire house where she resides. Her folks own the aforementioned home, so she pays no rent for it.

"This looks like an attempt to game the rules to maximize benefit," said former Committee on Standards in Public Life chairman Sir Alistair Graham.

"She says she 'fully funds' her constituency accommodation but does not reveal it is owned by her parents. Those are weasel words, she needs to explain what she means," the report said, adding that "is she manipulating the rules to strengthen her household income? It has the smell of a conspiracy to do that."

MP Braverman is currently on a mission to deport asylum seekers in the UK. He has pledged to clamp down on the benefits culture. She supported the government's new plan to send refugees to Rwanda for deportation and expressed her conviction that the African nation is a secure destination for migrants who entered the country illegally.

In December 2022, the UK High Court ruled in favor of the British government's controversial policy to fly asylum seekers to Rwanda, ignoring international criticism.

Human rights organizations believe that sending people more than 6,400 kilometers to a nation they don't want to live in is considered immoral and inhumane. They also mention Rwanda's subpar human rights record.