Helen Grant should resign as MP

My MP, Helen Grant the Equalities Minister, lives is a £1.8m house in Reigate 37 miles from her Maidstone constituency but just 19 miles from Westminster. Reigate to Westminster is a journey that takes around 45 min to get to London and perhaps 10 mins more on the tube - yet is allowed to claim for rent on a second home in London costing £20,000 per year.

It seems that she can claim for a second home in either her constituency or in London despite having her first home in a London constituency. It might not be against the letter of the rules but it is clearly against the spirit of them. She has chosen not to live in her constituency and it seems that her surgeries are going to be adhoc following the closure of the constituency office.

The Mail reports that she is earning £97k from her job as an MP and minister and a further £26k from her work as a solicitor. I make that three jobs, three more than her former assistant Tony Williams whose contract was changed without his knowledge and who then was made redundant by her. She still employs her husband though. I guess they need the money.

Tomorrow Channel 4's Dispatches will be doing an expose on Ms Grant - please watch!

In a government that is destroying the lives of those most in need, the equalities minister is busy making her life very comfortable.

Three jobs, doesn't live in the constituency or anywhere near it, and soon won't have an office here. She clearly has no time for Maidstone's constituents and should stand down as our MP.

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