THE stroke of a civil servant’s pen was blamed today for an embarrassing mistake in expenses claimed by Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman.
The official mistakenly attributed travel expenses to Mr Sheerman’s wife Pam – leaving him to explain the biggest claim for spouse travel of any MP.
The figure shows £2,092 was claimed between October and December last year and was listed in the MP’s spouse travel box.
It was published on the Parliamentary website, as all MPs’ travel expenses are, and on a national newspaper website, which put him at number one in the list of MPs whose spouse claimed more than any other.
But the veteran MP, who challenged the figures, was told it was an error by an official and the figures on the website were wrong.
And the MP of 31 years cleared his name by establishing the expenses were for journeys HE made by car between his Huddersfield home and Westminster.
Mr Sheerman said: “Between April and November last year, Pam made two journeys by train from Huddersfield to London and back and claimed £220.
“She never uses the car and all the car journeys have been made by me.
“I submitted a claim dating back seven months in November but half the total was wrongly attributed to my wife.
“In all I made 22 return journeys between April and November, with each return journey totalling 390 miles. The rate is 40p a mile.
“Because someone ticked the wrong box I have been criticised.
“They haven’t offered me an apology but simply said it was a mistake.
“I wonder how many other mistakes may have been made.”
He told the Examiner all MPs were limited to 15 journeys per year for spouse travel, which is designed to help families while MPs are working in London away from their home constituency.
