I was just reading the evening standard newspaper and found this article about Saeeda Warsi co-chairman of Conservative .... just imagine if this is happend in Pakistan :lol: its a very tiny allegation on saeeda warsi about expenses of one night stay which is 165.00 only and whole media is after her......zardari and company ki corruption ka soch k andaza hota hay k ham to wakay hi pathar k daur men jee rahay hain..
Cabinet minister Sayeeda Warsi called in the House of Lords sleaze watchdog today in an attempt to clear her name amid allegations that she claimed money for accommodation while staying rent-free at a friend’s house.
Baroness Warsi, the Tory co-chairman, asked Paul Kernaghan, standards commissioner for the Lords, to examine the claims against her. She insisted she had always acted within the law and “spirit” of Parliamentary rules.
But critics called the move a “panic reaction”, amid growing calls for her resignation. Downing Street insisted David Cameron had “full confidence” in Baroness Warsi.
She insists she made an “appropriate payment” to her friend, Tory official Naweed Khan, for the nights she was at the property in Acton. Mr Khan, who is now one of her aides, was living there on a long-term basis and she stayed while waiting for her Wembley flat to be ready. She says she was there for about two nights a week over a six-week period at the start of 2008.
Mr Khan, has supported her assertion, releasing a statement saying she made a payment each time she stayed. But the property’s owner, GP and former Conservative donor Wafik Moustafa, has denied receiving any income from either Lady Warsi or Mr Khan.
The peer, now a Cabinet Office minister, was claiming Lords subsistence of 165.50 a night at the time the allegations relate to.
MPs compared the case to that of Lord Hanningfield, the former Tory peer jailed last year for claiming expenses to stay in London when he was not in the capital. Liberal Democrat backbencher Sir Bob Russell said there may be a case for the police to investigate, while others called for a Parliamentary probe.
Lady Warsi, who is on a trip to Malaysia, said she would “fully co-operate” with any investigation but insisted there had been no wrongdoing. “I believe that being a member of the House of Lords is a privilege, I take that privilege seriously,” she told ITV News. “It’s why I have always ensured that my conduct, including with relation to expenses and allowances, is both in accordance with the law and the spirit of the rules.”
She has written to Mr Kernaghan, a former chief constable of Hampshire police, to look into the substance of the allegations.
A Lords spokesman said he would carry out an “initial assessment” before deciding whether there would be a full investigation.
Labour MP John Mann said it was a “panic measure” to call in Mr Kernaghan, and Lady Warsi — Britain’s first female Muslim cabinet minister — should not stay in her post while the claims are swirling around.
Separately, Lady Warsi admitted failing to declare rental income on a Wembley flat in the Lords register. She said she had corrected the “oversight”.
