Britain Frowns on Treasury Secretary David Laws Letting Taxpayers Pad Boyfriend’s Pockets
David Laws, the 44-year-old former investment banker installed as Britain’s Treasury secretary not even three weeks ago, is resigning from his post after it was revealed he had taxpayers writing a rent check that went directly to his boyfriend James Lundie .
Some £40,000 (USD$57,900) was claimed by Laws under the “additional costs allowance” rules, which the House of Commons permits officials to use to pay for housing. But not to pay for housing that a loved one or close associate benefits from. The rules state you “must avoid any arrangement which may give rise to an accusation that you are, or someone close to you, is obtaining an immediate benefit or subsidy from public funds.” And: “The additional costs allowance must not be used to meet the costs of a mortgage or for leasing accommodation from yourself, a close business associate or any organisation or company in which you – or a partner or family member – have an interest; or a partner or family member.”
So why didn’t Laws immediately know he was doing something wrong? Perhaps (likely?) he did. But in his initial excuse, he claimed he didn’t consider Lundie a “partner” — though they’ve been together since 2001 — because they have separate bank accounts. Hah!
How could all this have been solved? If both their names were on the mortgage. Oh, rich people problems.
Laws, a wealthy fellow, says he’ll pay it back. Read his full statement here.
Is this a boyfriend or an escort? thats a lot “rent” money….
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The Speaker of the House of Commons resigned last year for the similar expense scandal. The British don’t take too kindly to this misuse of funds.
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This is a completely true story: one of my country’s online paper broke this story and intentionally put Mrs. before “James Lundie” and mention not a single thing about Laws’ sexuality. I wrote the editors a message asking who on Earth would name their daughter “James” and complained that they cannot distort news in such insane way. The next day the news was indeed changed. No more “Mrs” but they left out the fact whether “James Lundie” is a male or female. Reading thoroughly the article, I was really amazed on how they made James Laws sounds like any other “straight” embezzling bastards. Yet I cannot not find what the real intention behind this is.
Oh: the news is in Vietnamese.
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One thing IS certain though. The coalition is losing one talented finance manager. He is very well known in the banking community in England and has been VERY successful in his career before this job which actually pays WAY less than his previous position. He is just another casualty of societal prejudice.
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@SSCHIEFRSHA: Er..no. He is a casualty of sheer greed. He is a multi-millionaire, but he couldn’t resist fiddling his expenses to gain £40,000. Meanwhile he was engaged in cutting expenditure which would impact adversley on the lives of ‘the little people’ i.e the taxpayers who are paying for his cheating.
He then tried to claim that he was trying to keep his sexuality and relationship private – if he hadn’t falsely claimed this money no-one would have known or cared who he is living with.
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He is a greedy, thieving b*****d regardless of his sexuality.
Apparently, his sexuality was not a secret, everyone knew he was gay and lived with his partner.
It must be nice to be able to pull out 40,000 pounds and say oops – my mistake. He knew what he was doing and didn’t think he would get caught. A thief is a thief!
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Bloody hell. Just goes to show we are like straight people. Some of us are greedy bastards who are willing to lie and cheat for an extra quid. If he was an American, he would be a member of the Log Cabin crowd.
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Mr. Laws is a Liberal Democrat, in some ways, to the left of Labour.
His sexual orientation was never a secret, but he didn’t brag about it either.
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@whatever:
And as punishment for his transgressions, the former Speaker was elevated to the title of Baron Martin of Springburn by the Queen – on the advice of the Prime Minister – some three months after resigning in disgrace. He now sits in the House of Lords for life and continues to enjoy the privileges of parliamentary immunity.
Sadly, the powerful will always think they are above the law and that rules only apply to other people.
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Regardless of a politician being straight, lesbian, gay or bi, it’s terribly wrong to add your lover to the payroll unless s/he has been vetted by the proper channels: y’know like making sure that that person can perform duties in an actual JOB where there is a position open and tasks that must be accomplished.
And by “open position” I mean WORK not play!
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Commentators report that David Laws lives frugally despite his wealth and that his actions have not been motivated by greed. Reports suggest he could have claimed more had the arrangements been up front and honest.
He comes from a devout Roman Catholic family and has tried to conceal his sexuality throughout his life; I do not know about his partner. Cut the man some slack because we do not know what their circumstances are or the consequences of all this for them in private personal terms. It is certainly a lesson about trying to stay in the closet.
There is a lot of criticism of the Daily Telegraph which is the right wing paper that released the story and why had they waited till now to release the story. It seems be less about Mr. Laws’ propriety and much more about destroying the coalition. The right wing of the Tory party seem to want another general election soon because they do not like the result of the last.
I hope he is soon back in government,. We cannot afford to waste a man of such great talent.
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It’s previously been alleged that Rupert Murdoch’s publications – of which I think The Daily Telegraph is one – store stories until such a time as is “convenient”. Rather than publish the story as it becomes known, it’s apparently filed away until a time of the editor’s choosing.
Keep in mind that Murdoch is the man who owns the phoney and baloney Fox News Channel.
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As a so called devout roman catholic he should have known/been taught right from wrong.
Stealing other people’s money is against the law and wrong. Looking for sympathy by playing the ‘poor gay card’ for getting caught is just pathetic. His sexuality was an open secret.
A question – would an unemployed benefit cheat be cut some slack if they played the gay card – I don’t think so. People like him would label them thieves and have them taken to court, regardless of their personal circumstances.
A man of great talent – not!
A thief – yes.
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@jason:
The Telegraph is owned by the Barclay Brothers who are not happy with some Lib Dem proposals.
EVERY newspaper inc Perez Hilton does this. They keep information. It’s called being in cahoots with the PR agency and whoever is involved in said scandal.
Think Sandra Bullock-why is it NOW we’re hearing about Jesse James b*llsh*t, when please, he’s always been a racist, homophobic, sexist jackass if anyone bothered to pay attention to him!
He shouldn’t have taken the £40K. Frugal or not, you are a multi-millionaire and I pay your wage through taxes, don’t take the piss-closet or not.
Yep but it’s not even that. The middle class with money also don’t get it. All my friends and people I know are like ‘devastated’ he’s gone. They don’t get that this has NOTHING to do with sexuality but is about the rich and poor divide in the UK. More a class thing though..
@Sami:
No they aren’t at all.
I know too many Lib Dems and they are actually closer to Libertarians with a democractic (say rational) side. They are a mixture of economic liberals and social liberals.
Some policies only seem left to Labour because you are comparing them to Labours very right wing policies and not Labours other v left policies-which there are A LOT of.
@Jumper:
Because The Telegraph didn’t want to OUT him, they just wanted to get rid of him and not make it into an issue about sexuality.
Why? Politics baby. They have their invested interests.
If only! His boyfriend is not equally as rich but is the Director of a huge lobbying firm and is pretty wealthy.
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You’d have thought he’d be smarter than that! What a shame. That closet is a killer.