Mini-breaks

MPs take wives on mini-breaks to the sun...and taxpayer foots bill, by Jonathan Oliver in The Daily Mail:

MPs are enjoying taxpayer-funded "mini-breaks" to European capitals accompanied by their spouses in an extraordinary Commons expenses scam. The Mail on Sunday can today reveal how politicians exploit a loophole that allows them to take foreign excursions anywhere in the European Union – and then claim back the costs from Westminster authorities. Using an obscure rule introduced in the late Nineties, MPs are allowed to make up to three trips each year to mainland Europe to learn about the inner workings of the EU.

But the system is now open to widespread abuse, as politicians use official meetings lasting only a few minutes to justify the cost and reason behind their visit. Two former MPs have now blown the whistle on the abuse, where MPs are reimbursed for club-class return air fares and "subsistence" costs of up to £200 a day. One ex-Labour backbencher, who asked not be named, said: "It was normal practice. I went to Cyprus and of course everyone went to Malta to chase the sun." ..

..The second former MP recalled: "We went to Malta one February in search of warmth and it was the coldest winter in 50 years. We met the High Commissioner for an hour or so but that was it. "A particular high spot was four days in Cyprus when the briefing consisted of a ten-minute phone call with a High Commission official and no meetings at all. In Bucharest in Romania a winery tour was arranged."...