How Sheryll topped the class

Sheryll Murray's expenses from Graham Smith on Vimeo.

Sheryll Murray bravely came out to play on BBC Radio Cornwall yesterday afternoon and defended her £15K+ expenses claims. I'll upload Martin Bailie's interview with her in a day or two. (Should be there now)

There is no suggestion that Sheryll claimed improperly for anything. But the new way of publishing details of MPs' expenses raises as many questions as it answers. For example, we cannot see the original receipt - so a claim for "office furniture" might or might not turn out to be a luxury rocking chair; we just don't know.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) gives us only a brief description of what an MP has claimed for. So Sheryll's claim of £12.50 for "repair to a borrowed computer" is no doubt entirely legitimate - but wouldn't it be fun to know how it got broken?

As a new MP Sheryll will have had several one-off start-up costs to get her office up and running. Expenses here include £303.43 for "reception chairs" and £79.31 for a carpet. There's a claim of £13.50 for keys, £3.45 for plates (for the office), £1.65 for a "starter for light fitting" and £4.04 for a light bulb. There are several even less detailed claims for "DIY" with the helpful suggestion to "see note" - which isn't available on-line. Sheryll also made multiple claims for the use of her own car. I repeat, all of these claims are within the rules.

I think IPSA appreciates that, at the moment, it is the watchdog which is at least as much on trial as the MPs. The website is very clunky and crashes repeatedly. The information is less complete than that which Parliament was eventually forced to disclose a few years ago.

On the plus side, the expenses claims will be published, routinely, three months in arrears. The next batch will be due out in February.