Labour peer Baroness Uddin claims £100,000 expenses on empty flat
The baroness, who became Britain?s first Muslim woman peer in 1998, has lived with her family in a house in Wapping, east London, since the early 1990s
A LABOUR peer who lives in the East End of London has claimed about £100,000 in parliamentary expenses on a flat in Kent that neighbours say has been unoccupied for years.
Baroness Uddin, who worked closely with Tony and Cherie Blair, has been claiming allowances intended for peers living outside London although she resides only four miles from the Lords.
Inquiries by The Sunday Times have established that the baroness bought a two-bedroom flat in Maidstone in 2005 and has named it as her main home to claim almost £30,000 a year in accommodation expenses from the House of Lords.
Residents from the five other flats in the same block as Uddin’s property all say they have never seen her there. They could see through the windows that the bedrooms were unfurnished.
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Yvonne Adams, who has lived next to the flat for three years, said: “I can’t emphasise enough how no one has lived there. They just haven’t. I know that for a fact.”
Adams said she went on to her rear balcony every day and had never seen anyone on the balcony next door. Until recently, there were piles of leaves on the balcony and sheets over the bedroom windows had fallen down. “There has never been a stick of furniture in there,” she said.
Last weekend, hours after The Sunday Times had challenged Uddin about her “main residence”, the baroness’s BMW 4x4 car was spotted at the Maidstone flat and members of her family arrived.
A plumber who went into the flat to help the family with a broken boiler said: “It looked like they were just moving in. They told me they were just moving in.” By Sunday night, curtains covered the windows, a light was on in the hall and a mat was placed outside the front door.
The Sunday Times has also challenged Uddin about a further £83,000 worth of expense claims she made before she bought the Maidstone flat in September 2005.
She has claimed that her main residence has been outside the capital since 2001 but refuses to say where, despite repeated questions.
Last night Angus Robertson, the leader in Westminster of the Scottish National party, which has campaigned for stricter controls on expenses, said he wanted two inquiries into the baroness’s expense claims. “I will be writing to the police and the House of Lords authorities asking them to investigate this report,” he said.
Lord Oakeshott, the Liberal Democrat frontbencher, said: “An empty property can’t be a peer’s main residence. The Lords authorities must check the facts of this case and investigate.”
Insisting she had done nothing wrong, Uddin said: “Should the House of Lords authorities wish to investigate the matter I will, of course, cooperate fully.” She said she stayed at the flat “regularly” and that it had furniture.
Yesterday she appeared at the flat but refused to prove it was furnished by showing a reporter around. “I’m telling you it is. You'll just have to accept that,” she said.
The baroness, who became Britain’s first Muslim woman peer in 1998, has lived with her family in a house in Wapping, east London, since the early 1990s. Neighbours there say they regularly see her. By contrast, none of the residents of the Maidstone apartment block could remember seeing her.
The occupiers of apartments directly above and below the flat said they had always believed it was empty.
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