Peter and Iris Robinson, who are Democratic Unionist Party MPs, put in similar expenses claims, which were signed and dated on the same day – March 31 – and had been prepared by the same person. A copy of an invoice for six months’ worth of service charges on the couple’s Thames-side flat in Newham, east London, was included with both the expenses claims, which had been submitted in the same envelope but an official in the fees office crossed out the claim on Mr Robinson’s form, with the note “Already claimed by Iris Robinson”.
On the same day, the official rejected claims for a total of £10,860 in mortgage interest payments made by the couple – £5,430 on each form, covering five months – because no mortgage interest statements had been submitted to back up the claim. It was unclear from the documents whether the money was ever paid or whether mortgage interest statements were submitted.
Between 2004 and 2008, the Robinsons claimed a total of £159,208 on the flat, which they bought in 2001 for £450,000. Most of the claims were made up of mortgage interest payments which the couple jointly claimed at £2,172 per month in total in 2007 – the equivalent of the interest payments on a 100 per cent mortgage at around six per cent.
The second homes allowance claims included £30,525 for food between 2004 and 2008, with the couple claiming the maximum £400 per month each in most months.
Mr Robinson, the MP for East Belfast who has also been the First Minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly since June last year, and his wife, the MP for Strangford, received a total of £571,939 in 2007-08 in salaries and expenses from jobs in Westminster and Northern Ireland.
As well as their MPs salaries, they each receive a separate salary for sitting in Stormont. Mr Robinson is paid £71,434 as First Minister and £43,101 for being an assembly member. He employs his daughter Rebekah as his office manager and son Gareth as his parliamentary assistant. Both are listed with their parents on the electoral roll at their flat. Mr Robinson, who has been an MP since 1979, took out a Northern Bank loan to buy the flat near the Thames Barrier after his wife joined him in Parliament in 2001. The couple also have homes in Belfast and Florida.
Mr Robinson, responding on behalf of himself and his wife, said the double claim for the £1,223 bill was “an innocent mistake”. He said: “The two claim forms were prepared for the signature of my wife and myself by the same person. They are signed separately and then sent together in the one envelope. Anyone in the fees office would have been dealing with the claims together and inevitably would have noticed the innocent mistake. It is clear that this one duplicate entry over many years was an innocent error and happily was spotted.”
He said he and his wife submitted a mortgage interest statement every year, and said the combined £10,860 interest was paid by the fees office at a later date. Mr Robinson added that an average of £100 per week for food was “not unreasonable” and said neither of the children “have spent more than a half a dozen nights in the apartment over the years”.
Name: Peter Robinson
Job: DUP MP
Salary: £64,766
Total second homes claims:
2004/5: £19,329
2005/6: £17,835
2006/7: £19,558
2007/8: £19,864
Name: Iris Robinson
Job: DUP MP for Strangford
Salary: £64,766
Total second homes claims:
2004/5: £20,541
2005/6: £21,217
2006/7: £20,386
2007/8: £20,478
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