A Bangladeshi-born Muslim woman who was made a member of the House of Lords by the Labour Party has been revealed as ripping off taxpayers to the tune of £100,000 for an empty flat, claiming it as her “housing allowance” as part of her parliamentary privileges.
Manzila Pola Uddin, who now holds the title of Baroness, has been claiming allowances intended for peers living outside London although she resides only four miles from the Lords. Born in Bangladesh in 1959, her parents moved to the United Kingdom during the 1970s, when she was 13 years of age, and she grew up in London, in the borough of Tower Hamlets, where she became a Labour councillor. She was raised to the peerage as Baroness Uddin, of Bethnal Green in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, for life in 1998. She swore in by saying “Almighty Allah” as she took her seat in the parliament.
Inquiries by a national newspaper have revealed that she purchased a two-bedroom flat in Maidstone in 2005 and has named it as her main home to claim almost £30,000 a year in accommodation expenses from the House of Lords. Residents from the five other flats in the same block as the property all say they have never seen her there. They could see through the windows that the bedrooms were unfurnished.
Yvonne Adams, who has lived next to the flat for three years, said: “I can’t emphasise enough how no one has lived there. They just haven’t. I know that for a fact.” Ms Adams said she went on to her rear balcony every day and had never seen anyone on the balcony next door. Until recently, there were piles of leaves on the balcony and sheets over the bedroom windows had fallen down. “There has never been a stick of furniture in there,” she said.
Last weekend, hours after the newspaper had challenged Ms Uddin about her “main residence,” the baroness’s BMW 4×4 car was spotted at the Maidstone flat and members of her family arrived. A plumber who went into the flat to help the family with a broken boiler said: “It looked like they were just moving in. They told me they were just moving in.” By Sunday night, curtains covered the windows, a light was on in the hall and a mat was placed outside the front door.
The newspaper also challenged Uddin about a further £83,000 worth of expense claims she made before she bought the Maidstone flat in September 2005. She has claimed that her main residence has been outside the capital since 2001 but refused to say where, despite repeated questions.
Insisting she had done nothing wrong, Uddin said: “Should the House of Lords authorities wish to investigate the matter I will, of course, cooperate fully.” She said she stayed at the flat “regularly” and that it had furniture. Yesterday she appeared at the flat but refused to prove it was furnished by showing a reporter around. “I’m telling you it is. You’ll just have to accept that,” she said.
She has actually lived with her family in a house in Wapping, east London, since the early 1990s. Neighbours there say they regularly see her. By contrast, none of the residents of the Maidstone apartment block could remember seeing her, according to the newspaper.
Westminster – rotten to the core. The time has come to punish the Westminster pigs by voting BNP on June 4th.
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