It's in the rules...

So claimed many of those caught with their fingers in the honey pot. What the greedy MPs have done is largely permitted. Isn't there a fees office to ensure that the rules are not broken?

The rules are vague, but there is one which requires that when an MP signs for an allowance he or she assents that such expenditure was "wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred in the performance of their (parliamentary) duties."

You would need special pleading of a special quality to bring many of the items of which we have read into agreement with the above stipulation. The claimed extenuation comes, of course, from the need to have accommodation near or in London for those with constituencies further afield. It also resides in the fact that the "beggars" can opt at any time to choose which of their dwellings will be (temporarily) regarded as their second home.