letter to the editor from Richard Corbett MEP |
|
23 November 2007 |
|
Daily Mail |
|
Dear Editor, Rob Alps is rightly outraged about the scandal of former UKIP MEP Ashley Mote (letters, 21st November) for continuing to receive his taxpayer-funded salary while in prison at the taxpayers' expense for defrauding the very same taxpayers. However, the anomaly is caused by British, not EU, rules. MEPs are paid by the House of Commons (at the same rate as backbenchers) and it is their rule that a Member must be jailed for more than a year in order to lose their seat. I have taken this up with Harriet Harman, Leader of the House, who has replied agreeing to look into this rule in view of revising it. Too late for Mote, perhaps, but not to prevent this happening again! Yours, Richard Corbett Labour MEP for Yorkshire & Humber
|
|