Baroness Uddin provides no evidence for £83,000 claim
Uddin claimed for a property that does not seem to exist
BARONESS UDDIN, the Labour peer at the centre of a police inquiry, has failed to provide evidence to back her expenses claims of £83,000 for a main home outside London that does not appear to exist.
The Sunday Times has asked Uddin repeated questions over several weeks about the residence, which she claimed was her main home for four years from 2001-5. She has refused to respond.
A friend and two family members have said that Uddin neither rented nor owned a property outside London before buying a flat in Maidstone in 2005. She then appears to have left this flat unoccupied while claiming it was her main home.
The matter is to be looked at by the Metropolitan police, which announced on Friday that it would be investigating the expense claims of a small number of peers and MPs.
Although the police have not named any of the peers, it is understood that they have been looking at some of the lords whose expense claims have been highlighted in this newspaper in recent weeks.
Scotland Yard sources say that Uddin is under investigation, although neither would comment officially. A second peer, Lord Clarke of Hampstead, is being investigated by the House of Lords authorities after admitting to The Sunday Times that he fiddled his expenses by wrongly claiming for overnight stays in London.
Uddin, who was made a peer by Tony Blair, has claimed more than £180,000 – a figure that includes an estimate for last year – in expenses for staying overnight in London since 2001. The allowance is intended to compensate peers whose main home is outside London for the cost of having to find accommodation in the capital while attending the House of Lords.
However, Uddin has lived with her family in their housing association home in Wapping, east London, since the early 1990s. It is four miles from the Lords, the rent is a quarter of the normal commercial rate and she has no obvious need for taxpayer help to provide her with accommodation in London.
In the published records for Lords expenses, which begin in 2001, she fails to give any clue as to where her “main home” outside the capital might be until 2007-8 when she listed Kent.
Inquiries by this newspaper established that the home was in fact a small two-bedroom flat in Maidstone that had been bought for £155,000 in September 2005.
There is no evidence that she owned or rented any property outside London before buying the flat. When her solicitors were asked whether such a property existed, they issued a statement on her behalf avoiding the question.
Furthermore, Uddin did not appear to have lived in the Maidstone flat either. Residents from the five other flats in her block said they had never seen her there and they believed it to be unoccupied. They could see through the windows that the bedrooms were unfurnished. Only after this newspaper contacted Uddin did she appear at the flat with members of her family. She was apparently attempting to make the property look as if it were lived in.
Mark Ryan, a plumber who had been in the flat to fix the boiler, said: “It was very dusty. There were odds and sods of furniture around. There was an old mattress on the floor of one bedroom. It wasn’t made up. There was a fold-up clothes dryer in the other bedroom.
“It didn’t look lived in. It certainly didn’t look like a family home. They told me they were just moving in.”
Uddin declined to comment yesterday.
Insight: Jonathan Calvert, Claire Newell, Solvej Krause
And the Govt can't afford (doesn't want to spend) on military resources for an ongoing conflict.
Dave, Chorley,
I think we should be asking why she is allowed to rent a housing association flat in an area of London where there are many low paid workers and poverty exists next door to people who are wealthy.
Linda, Fife,
Two essentials need action: first stop the rot. She abused the system and us so shame her and fire her, Secondly, get our money back PLUS interest. It should be as easy to serve taxpayer interests by these actions as it was easy for her to serve her own selfish interests. Taxpayers must bite back.
HRH Brian , Misterton, United Kingdom
What will the outcome be? Not guilty (or no case to answer) by virtue of being a Muslim. Unpalatable and non-PC but what is happening so often in our country.
Chris, Ashford, Middx, England
Surely the British people cannot put up with this for much longer. I wonder how many protesters will be killed, because sure as hell the police will be armed not just with their steel whips next time.
James, Yeovil, UK
Where is our queen when we need her?
All this mess must be ample justification for her to disolve parliament and allow her loyal subjects to clean out these mucky stables. I include the House of (so called) lords in this.
Otherwise, what must we do - take to the streets?
Mike Cooper, Warwickshire, UK
This fine woman was often seen on BBC 's Newsnight pontificating with Kirsty Wark about a variety of subjects. Also it is interesting that officials of the Housing Association from whom she rents her subsidised, real home from, bear her family name. There is more going on here than meets the eye.
chaplain, canterbury,
"Baroness" Uddin must think she is back home in Bangladesh, where politics is one big corrupt gravy train ,pretty much like now the UK and Europe. Lets see some proper actions against these scummy scroungers, such as obtaining money by deception/Fraud charges.
alan, london, uk
Seems our former Dear Leader learnt a lot when he was at the world's top table eg. First give everybody lollipops, eg a seat in The Big House, and an open till to keep them sweet. Everything is now in place, Ireland will vote YES, our former Dear Leader will be EU Presidente, with Mandy as his Mate
Phil de Buquet, Newport,
We all understand that it is normal for non Brits to cheat. Africans, muslims one and all look at any attempt to make extra cash by any means as totally legitimate. Do not waste public money chasing her, she will get off by calling up the race card anyway. Instead hassle honest Brit drivers.
peter jones, moscow,
This woman (I refuse to acknowledge her peerage) was not born in this country & appears to have been given a peerage by Blair as part of his 'Multicultural Britain' crusade.
If this story is correct & she is found guilty, she should be stripped of her citizenship declared unwelcome & deported.
Steve, London, UK
Why bother with the police investigation. Can anyone see these spongers being taken to court like little old ladies who with hold parts of council tax on principle! Not a chance in a milion.
Sandy, Denmead, England
Sandy Saunders, Denmead, England
This time newspapers have done a worthy job, however, this
trail should not stop here. There are obviously numerous
fat cats at Council Levels, perhaps bigger than what one may assume. On expenses side there is lack of accountability.
Money just disappears down the drain. This can make a
new chapter
PRAVIN, London, UK
Perhaps MPs should take an oath - not to Queen and Country but to "Me and Myself". At least then when they continue to rob from the poor to give to the rich, they would be keeping the faith.
I am fed up with paying tax on everything just to feather these peoples nest, legally or by deceit.
Paul Barrett, Plymouth, UK
Why is it that Blair always features in stories like this? He has a lot to answer for and he should do just that.
Gordon, surrey, UK
how and why was this woman given a peerage?This in itself is a scandal and needs investigating.Tony Blair is going to come into the spotlight finally.He's the crown jewels if we can get him and we must as he has so much to answer for especially Iraq.he knew he was handing a poisoned chalice to brown
Kevin, London, England
Disgraceful.
Farrukh, Woking,
Blair and his lucky escape again. But do you know, nobody gets lucky all the time.
Our Tone, London,
The truth, what is it and where is it. The mystery deepens, is it covered under a pile of dodgy expense claims, which are mounting by the second or is it just a figment of the imagination. Please keep digging, I and many others would love to know.
david, Helsinki, Finland
And living in subsidised social housing too?
bob holmes, axbridge E, England
Blair handed sweeties from his big jar.
JIC head Scarlett, allowed odious Campbell to sex up
Iraq docs 'awarded' head spy job.
Nasty Mandy now a lord.
Blair? Plans to be pres of EU.
WORSE, no-one is doing anything
to stop all this.
UK voters. Where are you?
Leigh Vernier, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
The Tories finally fell under the 'Cash for Quesions' scandal.
Labours' scandal should be dubbed 'Cash for Myself'
I commend your reporting - let's have more, and then let's have them all locked away in the Tower and off with their heads!. They bring shame on this once great country.
Steve, Northampton, Uk
While no party is completely innocent of expense fiddling, am I correct in observing that the vast majority are labour MPs and peers?
anthony, rayleigh, UK
Parliament is broken. It is incapable of mending itself.
Parliament would never allow an independent panel of laypersons to have the power to decide yay or nay over who gets the boot - from either house - and without possibility of appeal or discussion.
martin, sheffield, yuk
Uddin was a social worker-liason for Tower Hamlets, later a local councilor so why was she made a peer? A full investigation into the dubious dealings, both financial and political of Tony Blair needs to be undertaken post-haste.
Les, Southport, England
Greed greed and more greed. The group responsible for checking, challenging and regulating expense claims share in the accountability. Are they still in jobs? They have failed miserably. A whitewash here will cause a huge public backlash.
robert, Hartlepool, UK
Please, don't let this one slide under the carpet Times. You need to keep the pressure on until they get what they deserve! This 'peer' has been caught red handed and until the police investigate and conclude objectively what we all suspect, she should NOT be sitting in the Lords!
Chris, Nottingham, UK
My main concern is why such a low-quality individual was elevated to the peerage? She failed to even make the shortlist for running for MP, was a local councillor, youth worker and support staff for social services. THAT'S IT! It's hardly winning a world war or leading your professional field.
GW, London,
Graft and corruption all the way back to 1997 must be investigated and action taken if this Government is to achieve any semplance of credibility. An independent, legally enforceable, set of expenses and allowances rules must be developed outside of Westminster AFTER a General Election called NOW.
d.sloan, edinburgh, scotland
Housing Association tenancy agreements state that the flat must be the principal or only home of at least one joint tenant. Can we presume that her husband is a tenant ? If so I presume she is separated. If she is the sole tenant and living elsewhere as her principal home then the tenancy is over !
Adrian Forsyth, London, UK
Looks like the House is burning down.
Ari Silberman, Tel Aviv, Eretz Israel
'WE ARE CLOSING IN' what an appropriate advert.
james, leeds, uk
Well done to the "Sunday Times" journalists for not only reporting this story several weeks ago, but also for following it up.
The MPs caught up in the expenses revelations can at least claim they were voted into Parliament.
Baroness Uddin was given a peerage by Tony Blair. Why?
peter, london, uk