Scandal avoidance: James Arbuthnot, MP who claimed the cost of cleaning his swimming pool on expenses Ex-Tory Defence Minister James Arbuthnot’s morale sank when
his swimming-pool expenses were revealed, but Prince Charles owes him a favour. Fearing a paparazzi ambush at a Westminster event hosted by the Prince to raise money for the Forces charity Combat Stress, Arbuthnot, a friend of Charles, pulled out to avoid dragging the heir to the throne into the scandal. No home: Sarah Teather boasted of not claiming a second home in London Holier-than-thou Lib Dem MP Sarah Teather’s bragging in a Leftie rag about her refusal to claim her £24,000-a-year second-home allowance and how MPs who claimed it were ‘from another planet’ was too much for some. Lib Dem colleague Phil Willis spluttered with rage: ‘How dare she . ’ Commons officials are considering negotiating a block booking of the nearby County Hall Premier Inn, where rooms are £120 a night, for MPs to doss down after late votes. It would certainly end the second-homes expenses scandals – but unless there were girls’ and boys’ dormitories, it could start a rash of sex ones.