Geoff Hoon Now Under Fire for Second Home Allowance

I predicted it would get worse before it got better, and I wasn’t wrong. Geoff Hoon has become the latest minister  to get caught up in the second home allowance row. Hoon has been renting out his London flat, and claiming the second home allowance for his constituency home, whilst residing in a government provided grace and favour, rent-free, Whitehall apartment.

Hoon is the latest in a list of MP’s making the headlines for controversial expenses, including the Home Secretary Jacquie Smith, and minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform, Tony McNulty. These stories will continue to get dragged through the papers until we sort this out once and for all with a complete reform of the expenses system. A huge injection of transparency is needed, and needed quick.