Denis MacShane Doesn’t Know the Meaning of Contrition

Denis MacShane Doesn’t Know the Meaning of Contrition

“I found it interesting to read the letter from Zeb Khaliq in last week’s Advertiser defending Doctor Denis MacShane.
Zeb couldn’t really say much else, could he, because if I recall correctly, he wrote to the Advertiser earlier this year, when the police investigation was stopped, telling us how honest Denis was.
I can tell Zeb that Doctor MacShane is the only doctor who, having seen him you feel worse. In fact if Zeb would like to read MacShane’s, so called, apology for his fraudulent behaviour again, he would see that it reads more like the curriculum vitae of Mother Teresa.  
Most of his apology was in fact a list of all the wonderful things he claims to have done for our Town.
He tries to make it sound like he had become a true Man of Rotherham, when in reality he never lived in Rotherham with his family and his children never went to a Rotherham school. He thought Rotherham was good enough for the likes of us and our children but not good enough for him and his children.
He tries to suggest that all the information on his expenses has now come out, but this is not true, The Police and Parliament only looked into the European Policy Institute and computer fraud.
 In fact, I will make the same offer to him as before and that is: I will hire and pay for a meeting room if he will come and answer questions about the anomalies in his expenses claims, For example:
Why did he claim £100 each week for food for the three days he was in London and why did he also claimed for food even when he was away from London and when Parliament wasn’t sitting?
Why is it that before the rules were changed and it became necessary for MPs to submit receipts for claims above £25/month, he consistently claimed over £200/month for cleaning but when it became necessary to submit receipts in support of claims, his cleaning costs fell to £24/month.
Why did he claim £1,450 on his office expenses for the replacement of a gas boiler in his private home when his office was heated by electric convector heaters?
Why was it, that throughout 2004/5, he claimed £1,730/month against a listed expenditure of only £1,480/month? In October 2004 this error was brought to his attention but he nevertheless continued to over claim on his expense until July 2005?
Why does he claim £1,450/month to rent a second home in London when he already owns a £700,000 house in Pimlico just a few minutes’ walk from Parliament, paid for, in the main by the taxpayer and which he now rents out?
 Why didn’t he pay anything for his share of the Utility costs on his Rotherham home and why did he claim all his personal utility costs on his office account?
Why does his council tax claim for his London home not correspond with any of London Boroughs’ council tax bands ?
Why did he claim around £700/month for telephone costs? Why was this cost so high and were all the calls made on parliamentary business?
In reality MacShane has lived completely free for the last 18 years at the expense of the taxpayer. It is no wonder that he voted on every occasion in Parliament to keep MPs expenses a secret.
Had Denis made a sincere apology and truly accepted responsibility for all of his fraudulent expenses claims, I would have, by now, let the matter drop. However, because of the way in which he has sought to excuse himself, I am not prepared to allow him to think that he has hoodwinked the people of Rotherham once again. Until he has properly accepted responsibility for his actions and paid the price for his betrayal of the hard working and honest people of Rotherham, I will not stop in my attempt to expose him.”
Peter Thirlwall