I met this chap while out on the Unlock Democracy / Hang-em rally this afternoon.

Barry Gardiner’s £198,500 dwarfs Dawn Butler’s £66,000 expenses claims.

Brent councillor James Powney laments the threat and use of legal writ to silence debate, tending towards an environment where ‘legitimate freedom of speech could be restricted by self censorship.’

Legal writ has its strength though. When Brent Labour distributed a leaflet with false claims about Sarah Teather, the Brent Leb Dems took appropriate legal measures. In the face of the legal action, Labour have now admitted their story was false and agreed to pay the Lib Dems legal costs.

Dawn Butler, Ann John and other Brent Labour members have all signed a written apology to Sarah Teather.

Sarah Teather does not need to make up claims about Dawn Butler and her expenses. Dawn Butler’s £66,000 expenses claims are a matter of public record.

Brent’s Labour Group formal apology for issuing leaflets with defamatory claims about Sarah Teather is on page 4 of the WB Times this week.

Dawn Butler apologises to Sarah Teather

LibDem Voice has some news on Brent Centrals dirty politics.

Labour Minister Dawn Butler has issued a legal apology to Sarah Teather for calling her a hypocrite over MPs’ expenses. Butler made the accusation while the running of Sarah Teather’s office was under investigation. The Parliamentary Standards Commissioner later dropped the investigation because there were no grounds to suspect any wrongdoing by Ms Teather.

This issue came up at the MapRA Hustings on Monday night. There was a question from the floor on expenses which had Dawn attempting to justify £66,000 ACL since 2005 for her Wembley second home, when she has another property in Stratford. As we know, Sarah Teather has not claimed the second home / additional costs allowances. Dawn did well and may have carried it, but a follow up question on Brent Labours’ smear campaign and the ficititous complaints to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner about Sarah Teather by someone from Dawn Butlers team made a stench. Sarah announced that she had received a written apology from Dawn – you can download it – and won the ‘clean up dirty expenses’ applause.

Cllr Ann John attempted a last minute clawback… however her proclaiming of a ‘citizens right to know’ sounded hollow, now that we know of the ‘false… improper…wholly untrue….’ nature of what they wanted us to know.

From WB Times today. Sarah Teather smeared by member of Dawn Butlers team in fictitious expenses complaint.

AN INVESTIGATION into the expenses of one of the borough’s MPs has been abandoned after it was found that a letter of complaint was fictitious.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards said an objection claiming that Brent East MP Lib Dem Sarah Teather sublet her constituency office in Willesden to her party while the taxpayer picked up the bill was not genuine.

A follow up letter from the complainant included a returning address that was almost identical to that of an employee of Labour MP for Brent South, Dawn Butler, who is also Minister for Young Citizens and Youth Engagement.

The commissioner also said he discontinued the inquiry because he had no grounds for believing that claims Ms Teather made from parliamentary funds for her office provided support to the cost of the Lib Dem party.

A letter to Ms Teather from the commissioner said: “I have been in contact with the person who purportedly made the complaint. I have satisfied myself as to his identity. He has stated that he did not make a complaint against you.”

As the complaint was made, Ms Teather, who was famed for not claiming a penny during the expenses scandal, strenuously denied the allegations.

Brent Liberal Democrats said the party contributed over and above its usage of the office, as approved by the Commons, calculated by a surveyor and agreed with a solicitor.

Chris Leaman, Brent councillor and the Lib Dem London campaign manager, said: “Its seems a strange coincidence that the first letter was written by someone who now says they have never made a complaint about Sarah Teather and did not write the original letter. Many people will be wondering why the second letter is written from an address that does not exist, while a similar address with an identical post code has one person registered at it and that person works for Dawn Butler.

“Dawn Butler must take immediate action and reveal the full facts if any person employed by her has been involved in this smear campaign against Sarah.

“A letter of complaint against Sarah Teather was sent to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, supposedly from a  man at an address in Brent. Then a second letter of complaint was sent, again from this man, but giving a new address. However, this new address does not exist. There is a real address with the same house number and postcode (but different rest of address), at which there is one person on the electoral register – a woman who has the name of someone listed on Labour MP Dawn Butler’s register of interests as being a member of her staff.” Yes, very odd.
These claims were also being hawked in letters sent to Mapesbury residents by Labour candidate Angela Griggs.

In a recent letter to residents of the Mapesbury ward of Brent Central, Labours’ candidate Angela Griggs slings a little mud on expenses. Apparently complains have been made to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner about Sarah Teathers’ expenses in relation to her constituency office.

Now we know Sarah’s expenses are squeaky clean – check TWFY.com and compare the ACL to Dawn Butler and her £66,000….