Monday 11 April 2016

An Open Letter to Tom Watson MP

Email: 11/04/16 to Tom Watson MP

"You seem to have been rather quiet of late following your disgusting and merciless harassment of Leon Britton but I heard you mouthing off on the radio the other day about Cameron's tax etc and demanding "transparency".

You, yourself, of course have been remarkably opaque about your own "affairs" - and I use that word deliberately. You have wished to keep your sexual philandering quiet and it is also noteworthy that your clan has done well out of appointments with the Labour Party including your ex-wife who was once "employed" by you but paid for by us taxpayers. You also rarely speak about being the joint laziest MP 2010 to 2015 missing over half of the Westminster votes - I am sure people would like to know how you square that with now being Deputy Leader [sic] of the Party!

There has also been a distinct lack of transparency in respect of my enquiries about (a) your failure to get a degree at Hull University and (b) your receipt of hefty donations from gambler and ex(?)-casino entrepreneur Derek Webb of the so-called "Campaign for Fairer Gambling". You laughably purport to be a "socialist" and yet recently saw fit to accept substantial donations from two companies controlled by a well-known Birmingham pawnbroker but have not yet explained how that fits in with the Labour Corbyn/McDonnell communistic credo?

Of course, you choose not to live in the sh*t-hole that is Sandwell when you can live in trendy Bermondsey although you have been listed on the electoral register for at least a couple of years as living chez Cllr Hackett. I have asked him how many nights you have stayed there in the last couple of years but he has declined to say and I do understand that there are other nocturnal attractions for you when you deign to visit the area. But, in the spirit of transparency and in accordance with the electoral register "residence test", please tell us the precise details of your sojourns with the Hacketts.

You are infamous for the level of your parliamentary expenses claims including, of course, the notorious maximum claim for food under the old system. But more particularly, there are the questions that arise from your ownership of London property and, in particular, the property you shared with Iain Wright MP.

It is hard to keep up with your movements around London and at one stage you "rented" a flat from/with Unite the Union's Leader, Len McCluskey - presumably claiming the rent etc from the taxpayer and in 2011/12 the taxpayer forked out £11,688.70p for you to rent two rooms off another Unite official, Jim Mowatt.

But before that, you and Iain Wright MP are reported to have bought a leasehold flat together and lived there from around 2005 to 2009(?). You two lavishly furnished it at taxpayers' expense. More importantly, the Daily Telegraph reported:

"After purchasing the Westminster flat [with Wright].....the pair each submitted [claims] for thousands of pounds for arrangement fees and stamp duty".

Stamp duty is, of course, a form of tax but you chose not to pay it yourself but to let us mug punters pay it for you.

But then you went on to purchase the freehold which should have greatly increased the value of the property. Again, the Telegraph report:

"They did the same thing [ie claimed from the taxpayer] again the following year when they purchased the freehold of the property, claiming £1,431.46 for more legal expenses."

As the Telegraph also said in 2009:

"By purchasing the freehold, the MP's will have added significantly to the value of the apartment, but are under no obligation to pass onto the taxpayer any profits made when they sell the flat in the future".

There is also the question of tax here. Clearly you stopped living at the Westminster flat and went to live with your Unite chums. Did you sell the flat or rent out your half share? If the latter do you still derive an income from the flat which you declare on your tax return? As you were seemingly pretending to be married at this stage I am assuming that the flat was not your main residence and, therefore, any profit you made on a sale was liable to Capital Gains Tax. You castigate the Camerons for perfectly legal transactions and I imagine that if you had a CGT bill you were quick to claim your annual personal allowance against it? Let us have all the details please and given the size of your expenses claims it would be appropriate in your case to see your tax returns from 2001 when you first became an MP. There should be no problem with this as you told the Telegraph in 2012 in respect of your then property expenses claims to pay Mr Mowatt:

"I am very happy for the arrangements to be public and believe there should be far more transparency in the working of parliament and Government".

Finally, I have been lead to believe that your kids live with their mother but you are claiming the additional parliamentary allowance for them too. How many nights per year do they reside in Bermondsey please?

Signed (etc)

I will let you know the response folks! Meanwhile, here is the name the local branch of Unite the Union in his constituency call Watson. The Regional Organiser knows. So should you!


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