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I don't really live in Watford because it's a long way from London, says town's MP

Even I was surprised at the speed at which Claire Ward went to the local paper in an attempt to justify her second home allowance.You can see that her constituents don’t agree with her from the long list of comments (I’m the one using my real name, BTW). The paper reports Ms Ward as saying:

“The reason I have a second home is to allow me to be able to work in Westminster, which includes a lot of late nights. My second home allows me to balance my work with seeing my family.”

Now that’s interesting. Ms Ward has always maintained that her family home is in Watford. Her web site says that she has lived in Watford since 1997. So why does she need a second home in London in order to see her family?

“I understand a lot of other people also work very long hours too but MPs often work until around 10.30pm at night”.

Ms Ward has two children. The younger one has just celebrated its first birthday, whilst the elder one is almost three. You would have thought that they would be tucked up in bed after 10.30pm, when their mother arrives back their London home.

Constituents might be justified in wondering where Ms Ward really lives. Is her main family home, as she says above, in London and the Watford property just a house of convenience? If so, she should say so. If, as she claims at election time, Watford is her main abode, then why does she need a property in London in order to see her family who live in Watford?

Maybe the key point is how much closer Ms Ward’s London address is to Westminster than Watford is. There are many parts of London from which the journey times to and from Westminster would actually be longer than Westminster to Watford. Ms Ward lives a couple of minute’s walk from Watford Junction station, which is a 16 minute journey to central London. She would have to live really quite close to Parliament for it to make much difference in terms of time.

But do MPs living within a 50 mile radius of Westminster need second homes anyway? According to the Parliamentary Information Office, the House of Commons sat for 165 days in the last full year – a total of just 33 weeks – 6 weeks fewer than the school year and a massive 14 weeks less than a normal employee. During that time, Parliament sat for less than eight hours a day on average. Now whilst I know that MPs do work outside the Chamber, most televised debates show only a handful of MPs present. It is clear that the amount of time MPs need to be in Westminster is not much more than half the time most of their constituents are at their place of work. The justification just does not stack up, particularly for a ondon or Home Counties MP, who can realistically travel home most nights.

It is clear from the recent publicity surrounding Eric Pickles, Jacqui Smith, Tony McNulty and Harry Cohen that the public won’t wear this any longer. You would think Ms Ward might have a little decency and vote for reform – after all, it’s not as if she’ll get the opportunity to benefit much longer.

Related posts:

1. For the sake of the MP's children
2. A London home that's not in London
3. Ward defends tax-free perk