Gordon Brown 'reportedly "flipped" the designation of his second home from his London flat to his Scottish constituency home when he moved into a Downing Street grace-and-favour apartment in September 2006.'

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Politi ... 7266?f=rss

I can't wait to see the back of this slimy git

Why do they even get a second home allowance? If you have a job in London, you move there or you travel every day.
They applied for a job in London, they know they have to be there, go live there!

If I applied for a job a few hundred miles away, I would expect to uproot and move closer, or travel, and I wouldn't expect any money back on either of those...

And what about constituency work? MPs who do not represent areas in or around London should definitely get allowances for a second home, or at least somewhere to stay in London when they're at Westminster.

Westminster should buy a block of apartments - one for each MP - they hand their apartment key back when they get booted out - and have to pay for its upkeep out of their salaries. The taxpayer gains an asset and there will be no room for frivolous claims.

+1

Agreed wholeheartedly.

I would also suggest that really MPs could do a lot of their London work digitally - why travel to London when you could use video conferencing? They could spend more time in their constituency. They only need to travel to London for the really important stuff. If businesses can get away with this kind of working methodology, then I really think there is no excuse for MPs no to.