The indignation broke like a wave over Twitter yesterday evening (February 2) – that Priti Patel’s expenses claims may make her the most expensive MP in Parliament, taking home more money than prime minister Theresa May receives in her salary.

I have fact-checked this – it’s very simple and you can do it yourself by visiting this web page – and it shows that in the financial year 2017-18 she pocketed £152,672.15, which is actually more than is suggested in John Clarke’s tweet:

Priti Patel is still the most expensive MP in Parliament; claiming more in expenses than the PM earns!

Essex MPs are not entitled to claim for 2nd Homes; so is she kicking the arse out of her expenses to make up for that?#SnoutintheTrough pic.twitter.com/MkwoYWyC4y — John Clarke (@JohnClarke1960) February 1, 2019

And it justifies all the other nasty comments that have been made about her. Here are a few:

Rob says: “More Tory snout in the trough – taking everything giving nothing.”

“More greed. It amazing how much these MPs get away with,” tweets Leighton Royston.

“D” reminds us that Ms Patel “Called UK workers the laziest in the world. Patel is once again top of the “expenses” list. Keep voting for this and blaming the poor if that’s what works for you….idiots.”

This ties in with a recent comment to This Site by “Growing Flame” as follows: “I always thought that many Tory voters voted for their favourite Party knowing full-well that other British citizens would suffer because of it. And that was the POINT. People vote Tory to punish others of whom they disapprove, such as the less well-off or ethnic minorities or immigrants or gays etc.”

Meanwhile, Conservative MPs like Ms Patel make a fortune for doing nothing. So who do you think really deserves to be punished?

And Richard Mayer suggests: “She would happily stop foreign aid to the poorest in the world but claims double her annual salary as expenses from the taxpayer.”

Yes, her attitude to foreign aid is odd – she’d stop aid for the poorest but she wanted to give a lot of help to Israel, if you remember: She wanted our International Aid money to fund field hospitals run by the Israeli government in the Golan Heights (land which belongs to Syria but has been illegally occupied by Israel for many years).

She made that claim after a “family holiday” to Israel at which she held meetings with senior members of the Israel government including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. I wonder whether she claim that on expenses (it would be a contradiction but would anybody be surprised) – such a claim would have been honoured during the tax year in question.

And of course her payout after resigning in disgrace as International Development Secretary was £17,000. She should have been sacked but Theresa May wanted to give her your money and that meant she was asked to resign instead.

If I had claimed such a large amount in expenses while I was working as an employee, I’m sure I would have been called into the appropriate office for a good, hard talking-to, followed by a whittling-down of the claim; the company would have found reasons to disallow some items. That never seems to happen with MPs. Why not?

All this money has gone to a woman who is a national – and international – disgrace and a stain on our national character. She’ll probably be back in the Cabinet soon, if the Tories are lucky enough to stay in government. Will you meekly accept that? Or will you do whatever you can to prevent it?

Afterword: Some commenters have called into question whether Ms Patel’s expenses make her Parliament’s most expensive MP, and it seems worthy of investigation. Expect more on this as and when I’m able to provide it.

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