http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23668690-details/London+MP:+I+am+up+there+with+Churchill/article.do
London MP: I am up there with Churchill
Evening Standard
30.03.09
A LEFT-WING Labour MP has claimed he is "more professional" than Winston Churchill in serving his constituents.
Harry Cohen is MP for Leyton and Wanstead, part of which was in the east London constituency Churchill represented from 1945 to 1964.
Mr Cohen has come under fire over his second home expenses, said to be at least £104,000 over six years despite his constituency being 28 minutes from Westminster by Tube. One report has suggested his total claim could be more than £300,000.
But, shrugging off criticism over his expenses, Mr Cohen insisted: "I am almost certainly the most professional MP Leyton and Wanstead has ever had, and that includes Winston Churchill."
Churchill's grandson, Tory grandee Nicholas Soames, said: "The comparison between Harry Cohen and my grandfather is not one that bears close examination."
Conservative MP Graham Brady said: "I rather like Harry but I would not put him in the Churchill league." Mr Cohen could not be contacted for comment today.
As well as his constituency home, Mr Cohen has a one-bedroom house in Colchester and a static caravan in St Lawrence Bay near Bradwell-on-Sea.
There is no evidence he has breached any Commons rules, but he is facing questions over his use of the housing allowance. Mr Cohen has argued it is a case of "use it or lose it" and that MPs have been encouraged to claim the money, saying second homes expenses were counted as part of MPs' salaries.
Mr Cohen said yesterday: "I am doing nothing wrong whatsoever. I am using it for parliamentary purposes. It is a legitimate and proper use of it."
He said former Conservative minister John Moore had told MPs "go out boys and spend it" when he introduced a big increase of the allowance in the Eighties to head off a pay revolt by backbench Tories.
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My history is a bit rusty, but wasn't Churchill left almost bankrupt after being an MP? Another comparison that does make Cohen look good, either . . .
- Roz, Chamonix, France
without doubt, CHURCHILL had many foibles and flaws, but i very much doubt that Harry Cohen has any of the skills and talents that Churchill had. Mr Cohen is possibly better suited to Brick Lane than Westminster with his wide boy approach to expenses.
- M.O'Brien, london.uk
There is more to come out. It will be toxic. They have all been doing this for years, and that's why they fight like rats in a sack to stay in power, or to gain it. We now know what we should do at the Euro election - because that is a massive gravy train - and then the General election. Do any of you know who uncovered this starting with Derick Conway and the Winterton's? It wasn't the Lib-Dem's, and it's being covered up. Check it out on the net.
- Sylvia, Epping Essex
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Poverty of the MPs is in the grotesque shamelessness... and petty greed
EAST LONDON PRESS says at 0510 Hrs on Tuesday 31 March 2009: It is not just Harry Cohen, the east London MP who used to flaunt a faker beard and spout strings of calculated socialistic confections... Having lost BOTH in order to stay on the bandwagon, Cohen seems to have also lost any sense of rationality. And dignity. How else could he be saying those things, comparing himself to Churchill in that way? There were indeed many flaws in Churchill’s life and character. But Harry Cohen is not remotely convincing as a comparable Member of Parliament...Or as a member of society... What Cohen’s banal boast tells us about him is that he belongs to a parliament of political, mental, moral pigmies with no evident shame...
