British MP Billed Taxpayers for 'Servants' Wing'

Tory then sold house and evaded capital gains tax
By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff
Posted May 28, 2009 7:49 AM CDT
British MP Billed Taxpayers for 'Servants' Wing'
A poster for an evening newspaper features its front page story about the British expenses scandal, as seen in in central London, Friday May 15, 2009.   (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Just when the scandal over British MPs' expenses seemed to be petering out comes news that a Conservative legislator charged taxpayers $27,000 to build servants' quarters at his second home, the Times of London reports. Sir John Butterfill told the BBC the suggestion he had servants was a "gross misrepresentation." But then he slipped up when he tried to apologize for failing to separate his own home from "the servants', er, the staff wing."

Other Tory MPs have made similarly lavish claims, billing taxpayers to clean a moat and install a "floating duck island." But the revelations about Butterfill's country house have horrified the Conservative leadership, which has tried to rebrand the party in recent years. Butterfill sold the house in 2005 for nearly $2 million—then schemed to avoid paying capital gains tax.
(More United Kingdom stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X