AS a socialist who will be voting Labour in the June 4 European and County Council elections, I would like to comment on the letter in last week's Citizen by L D Pain.
Malcolm Moss MP will be retiring at the next general election. However, I feel that I must defend him against some of the inaccuracies Mr Pain writes in his letter.
I gather that Mr Moss sold his London property in the run-up to the expected autum
n 2007 general election, which did not take place.
Since then, Mr Moss has used his £1,900-a-month second home allowance not for mortgage interest payments, but to rent a small flat near to the Houses of Parliament.
Mr Pain is wrong when he writes that Mr Moss rewards himself with a staggering £4,070 per week made up from £1,230 in salary together with £2,840 in expenses.
The latter figure equates to about £148,000 per year. However, the bulk of this is made up of the costs of running a constituency office plus train and petrol expenses.
Mr Moss started his political career as a Wisbech Town councillor and then became a Fenland District and Cambs County councillor before entering Parliament in 1987.
Unlike many Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidates, Mr Moss was not ‘parachuted’ into Fenland by Party Central Office based in London.
Mr Moss is a one-nation Conservative of the ‘old school’. Whilst I have had political differences with Mr Moss, he has always answered the letters I have written to him.
When he retires as our MP at the next general election, Mr Moss will be sorely missed by political opponents and allies alike.
JOHN SMITHEE
Kingsley Avenue
Wisbech
