Marketing Agency Owner is Latest 'Exposed' MP

In the UK, the Daily Telegraph has revealed that millionaire Tory MP Brian Binley broke parliamentary rules by claiming around £57k in taxpayer-funded expenses to rent a flat from his own firm, BCC Marketing.

BCC - which offers telemarketing and call centre services for market research, inbound services and list creation - is headquartered in Wellingborough, with an additional office in Wakefield. It employs around 100 staff and turns over approximately £1.4m a year.

Binley, the MP for Northampton South, claimed £1,500 a month for three years to rent the flat, even though House of Commons rules forbid MPs from renting properties from their own companies. In 2006, he was informed that the claims were not permitted, but after appealing to the Speaker Michael Martin, he was authorized to continue claiming.

This April, Martin finally ruled that the claims must cease, but Binley will not have to repay the monies he claimed during the three years it took the Speaker to consider the case.

Binley was elected to the Commons in 2005, and first used the 'second home' parliamentary allowance to stay at the Carlton Club in London, a gentleman's club for Conservative supporters. In 2006, he began claiming rent for the flat in Pimlico, which is owned by BCC.

Defending his decision to pay rent to his own firm, Binley said: 'When the mortgage was taken out, it was totally cleared by the Fees Office and when the rules were changed which stated that I could not rent from a company that I had an interest in, I appealed that decision. I sadly lost that appeal, accepted the decision and found another flat which unfortunately costs the taxpayer more money because that is the going rate.'

Web sites: www.bccmarketing.co.uk and www.brianbinley.co.uk .