by Chris McLaughlin
THE newly-selected Labour candidate for Erith and Thamesmead has called for MPs to be jailed for expenses fraud.
Teresa Pearce, a professional tax investigator who won the selection in the “safe” Labour seat in south east London last weekend, said Westminster representatives should be treated no differently from members of the public who face prison for fraud.
She told Tribune: “At a time of recession, with people losing their jobs and the Government pushing through legislation to make claimants liable to take lie-detector tests to get job seekers allowance, what has emerged blights politics and politicians.”
Ms Pearce beat seven other candidates in the all-women contest to replace John Austin who held the seat, which has undergone boundary changes, at the 2005 election with a majority of 11,500.
Georgia Gould, the 22-year-old daughter of Tony Blair’s former pollster Philip (now Lord) Gould, came third in the controversial selection, which had to be halted at one stage after postal ballots were found to have been tampered with. Melanie Johnson came second by a “substantial” margin.
Ms Pearce is a former employee of the Inland Revenue, a tax consultant and for 20 years has been advising firms on how to comply with tax laws and the need to prove that expenses are “necessary” for a worker’s duties.
She compared the position of MPs with benefit claimants who will face prison under the Welfare Reform Bill for withholding information or deliberately failing to report a change in their circumstances.
“Claiming you didn’t know what you did was wrong or a mistake, or pleading negligence or incompetence is not allowed for people claiming benefits. Why should it be any different for MPs?”
