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Anne Moffat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Anne Moffat MP | |
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Member of Parliament
for East Lothian |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 7 June 2001 |
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| Preceded by | John Home Robertson |
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| Succeeded by | Incumbent |
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| Born | 30 March 1958 Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Labour |
Anne Moffat or Anne Picking (born March 30, 1958) is a Scottish politician and current member of Parliament. Moffat, a Labour Party member for East Lothian, was first elected in 2001 general election with 47.61 percent of the vote.
Born in Dunfermline in 1958, Anne Moffat is of the well-known Moffat family of East Lothian and Fife, but was known by her married name of Picking. She contested the 2005 election under her married name, despite having been divorced for two years, so as not to confuse the voters. Following the election she returned to her maiden name. [1]. She attended Woodmill High School in Dunfermline before embarking on a career in nursing.
She joined the Fife Health Board in 1975 as a nursing assistant, becoming a pupil nurse in 1977, before becoming a State Enrolled Nurse#United Kingdom in 1978. In 1978 she left Fife and joined the Northern Ireland Eastern Health Service in 1980, leaving in 1983 as a staff nurse. She moved to England in 1983 and joined the East Kent Community Health Care Trust as a staff nurse. She became a councillor in 1994 on the Ashford Borough Council where she served until 2000. She has been a member of the National Executive Committee since 1990.
In House of Commons she has served on a number of select committees including the Modernisation and Accommodation and Works Committee from 2001-2005. She was a member of the European Scrutiny Committee for a year from 2004 and since 2005 she has been a member of the Trade and Industry Select Committee. Moffat is also a member of UNISON and the Trades Union Congress's General Purposes Committee.
She is noted for rarely voting against her party line.
In 2003/4 (the most recently available figures), she was 635th out of 658 MPs in levels of spending on postage and 642nd in spending on stationery.
Moffat, however, ran up the highest travel bill of any Westminster politician in 2003/04. Now a breakdown of her expenses has been published after a fierce two-year battle for disclosure.
Anne Moffat's record bill was made up of thousands of pounds' worth of first-class rail and air fares, as well as trips to Malta and Portugal.
The landmark decision to publish the claims may open the floodgates for a spate of other revelations about MPs' allowances.
It follows a two-year fight by Green Party activist Michael Collie for publication of Moffat's travel bill.
The Labour MP was criticised after billing the taxpayer for nearly £40,000 in travel costs between 2003 and 2004, the highest claim of that year, Her huge bill led to questions being asked about the nature of her claims and prompted Collie to request more details through the Freedom of information Act 2000 (FOI).
The UK Parliament's decision to refuse publication of Moffat's claims was overturned by the Information Commissioner, whose judgment was backed earlier this year by the Information Tribunal.
Westminster authorities stepped up their defiance by taking the matter to the High Court, an extraordinary move from which they only backed down last month.
The figures show she claimed £9792 in rail fares over the 12-month period, including £7211 for journeys from London to "Glasgow or Edinburgh".
These 26 journeys cost an average of £277 each, a sum that suggests the Labour MP was travelling first class. A standard return between both cities, in 2007 prices, costs £91. She also claimed £1817 in rail fares for 42 trips between Heathrow and Central London, with each ticket averaging £43.
At today's prices, a standard "open return" between the airport and King's Cross station costs £13.60, while the Sunday Herald was quoted a price of £18 for a "first open return".
Moffat also racked up £15,712 in air fares between London and Edinburgh or, "in a few cases", Glasgow. The 51 tickets averaged £308.
Despite claiming around £22,000 in rail and air travel between London and Scotland, she also managed to claim £12,289 in mileage for a total of 24,129 miles.
In addition, she claimed £910 in travel for visiting Lisbon on parliamentary business, and £942 for a trip to Valletta in Malta.
Moffat subsequently slashed her extravagant travel claims as a result of the fallout from her record bill.
Between 2006 and 2007, she claimed around £12,000 in travel - a 70% drop compared with three years earlier.
Publication of the travel bill is another blow for Moffat, whose reselection as the Labour candidate for East Lothian is the subject in late 2007 of an internal party investigation.
Moffat won the reselection vote despite failing to win the support of a majority of branches. Her victory was further marred by Labour bosses confirming an inquiry into the way the ballot was conducted.
On May 23, 2007, she controversially compared the newly elected Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond to Adolf Hitler, saying "proportional representation gave Germany Adolf Hitler and in Scotland to a lesser degree we've had the member for Banff and Buchan" during a debate in the House of Commons on the recent Scottish Elections. [1] She has so far refused to withdraw or apologise for these comments.
- ^ Salmond compared to Hitler by MP BBC Online, 23 May 2007
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by John Home Robertson |
Member of Parliament for East Lothian 2001 – present |
Incumbent |