[Baroness Scotland] receives a £38,280-a-year “night subsistence allowance” widely understood to be for ministers whose primary home is outside London even though she owns a large house in the capital…
…A parliamentary guide to ministerial salaries makes clear that the payments are intended for ‘ministers in the House of Lords who maintain a second home in London”…
…A spokeswoman for the Attorney insisted that she is entitled to the allowance, which is paid automatically to her by the department rather than being claimed as an expense, as legislation does not specify where the peer should live to qualify.
But other Government ministers who are also members of the House of Lords, including the Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson, do not take the allowance…
…A spokesman for the Cabinet Office said that the payments were not against the rules as they stand.
But he added: ‘It is true to say that that was the intention behind this allowance, before it was brought in in 1991: to allow a peer who is a minister to maintain a second home in London…
Labour MPs are calling for their minister to go. PM Gordon Brown’s office is going through the act of saying Baroness Scotland won’t be fired but it’s understood (ie Downing St has leaked) that she will go in a mini-reshuffle later this week. Over there, ministers simply aren’t allowed to remain in office in circumstances like these.
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