SINN FÉIN has defended as fair, open and transparent its claiming of nearly £500,000 (€563,000) in London accommodation allowances for its abstentionist Westminster MPs.
The party said it had not broken any rules by claiming expenses associated with three London properties it rents for use by the five MPs when on business in London. Sinn Féin also denied inflating its expenses claims as claimed by a Sunday newspaper.
It was reported at the weekend by the Sunday Telegraphthat party president Gerry Adams and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness paid £3,600 per month for a property owned by an Irish landlord living in London. It also reported that Pat Doherty, Michelle Gildernew and Conor Murphy between them paid £5,400 per month for a north London town house. Another property, a two-bedroom flat, was also rented for occasional use, the newspaper reported.
The Sunday Telegraphwent further, claiming that a local estate agent had valued the properties, all of them owned by the same family, at well under what was being claimed by Sinn Féin in allowances.
The party has denied this, saying that the expenses claimed included maintenance and running costs.
In total, the five MPs have claimed £437,405 under the additional costs allowance system, which helps MPs to meet the cost of running a second home, and which was last year worth up to £24,000 per MP, the newspaper reported. This is in addition to £662,660 Sinn Féin has claimed for travel, office and staffing costs since a compromise was reached between the party and the British government eight years ago over eligibility for office space at Westminster and costs.
Last night West Tyrone MP Pat Doherty, a former party vicepresident, accused what he called the “Tory-led” press of trying to misrepresent the truth.
“We do not purchase properties at public expense and therefore do not profit from the expenses claimed as of right,” he said.
“Sinn Féin makes no apology for refusing to sit in the British House of Commons. The abstentionist position is the one supported by the vast majority of nationalists and republicans in the six counties. We also make no apology for ensuring that those people who vote for Sinn Féin get the same democratic entitlements as everyone else.”
He said his party was “unique” because of its practice of voluntarily publishing its financial accounts annually “in the interest of openness and transparency”.
“Sinn Féin MPs, MLAs, MEPs and TDs receive an average industrial wage,” he said.
“All other finance goes into providing first-class constituency services for the people and the electorate. All waged members of Sinn Féin, including MPs and Ministers, receive the same salary.
“[This] story is nothing more than a deliberate attempt by the Tory-led media to misrepresent Sinn Féin in the run-up to an election, no doubt in the hope that the spotlight will move away from them. Sinn Féin will not allow our open and transparent position to be misrepresented in this fashion.”
Northern Secretary Shaun Woodward said Sinn Féin members, like those from other parties, were not “crooks”, claiming instead that expenses reform was overdue at Westminster.
He told the BBC: “I don’t think these people are crooks, I don’t think they are bad people, whether they are Labour, whether they are Tory, whether they are DUP or Sinn Féin . . . but the system we’ve got is rotten.” However, the Conservatives, who are fighting the European election in a pact with the Ulster Unionists, are taking a tougher line.
Last month, Tory NI spokesman Owen Paterson said in relation to Sinn Féin claims for expenses: “It is completely unacceptable for Sinn Féin representatives, who won’t even sit in parliament, to claim hundreds of thousands of pounds at the taxpayer’s expense.”
Ulster Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson backed him: “I will continue to encourage Conservative colleagues to reform the system after the next Westminster election and I believe I am pushing at an open door.”