'She's received £39,000 in taxpayers' money to rent her flat over the last two years, that's what I call Whitehall waste'
Esther McVey, the minister who, in her own words, is “committed to delivering common sense decisions” has been accused of hypocrisy over her latest attack on ‘woke’ and claims to defend taxpayers money.
Leading the government’s anti-woke agenda, McVey’s latest announcement is for a ban on jobs dedicated to equality, diversity and inclusion in the Civil Service as she claimed public money was being wasted “on woke hobby horses”.
The overhaul would forbid civil service managers from hiring any new staff dedicated to improving equality and inclusion, with many people citing concerns about the Conservative government’s attitude to tackling discrimination and inequality.
Furthermore her apparent concern for taxpayers money was scoffed at by commentators online who highlighted the ‘hypocrisy’ of the cabinet minister’s property expense claims, paid for by the taxpayer.
It was revealed in March that McVey has claimed tens of thousands of pounds in expenses to rent a London flat, despite her husband owning a property just a mile away. Her husband Philip Davies, also a Tory MP, rents out his flat which provides him with more than £10,000 annually.
The couple could have received as much as £250,000 from the taxpayer since claiming expenses on McVey’s flat in 2017, an investigation by campaign group Led By Donkeys found, first published in the Daily Telegraph.
Media personality and former countdown host Carol Vorderman did the maths on McVey’s finances on LBC radio this weekend, calling out McVey’s ‘hypocrisy’ over Whitehall waste.
“She’s received £39,000 in taxpayers’ money to rent her flat over the last two years, that’s what I call Whitehall waste,” said Vorderman.
“She’s banging on about this element of whitehall waste.. And yet she has claimed tens of thousands of pounds in expenses.. I regard that as hypocrisy.”
McVey previously said in a newspaper column that she ‘did not want you to see a single penny of your hard-earned cash wasted on unnecessary public spending’.
To which Vorderman said: “I’m putting on my hat of common sense, why don’t you just give us the money back or go and live in your husband’s property that he owns a mile away and then we won’t have to waste our money being spent on rent that’s unnecessary?”
One X user wrote: “Esther McVey, paid a ministerial salary for the completely made-up role of “minister for common sense” really shouldn’t talk about money being wasted on unnecessary jobs.”
Adam Bienkov said: “This Government won’t waste money on ‘hobby horse’ non-jobs, says the recently appointed ‘Minister for Common Sense’”.
Both McVey and her husband were also presenters on GB News with McVey announcing she would stand down last November, while her husband still presents for the right-wing news channel. In her role she has earned £129,183.08 while her husband has cashed in £62,233.13, according to The Guardian.
Hannah Davenport is news reporter at Left Foot Forward
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