The Mirror last night published an article bearing the headline ‘Tory Minister Anna Soubry claimed £14 cost of delivering Remembrance Day poppies’.
The piece, written by the Sunday Mirror’s political editor Vincent Moss goes on to add that a claim had been made for £14.54 in travel expenses to deliver a wreath last November.
However, it transpires that the office of Anna Soubry made the claim on behalf of an employee who made a 32.3-mile journey delivering wreaths across the Broxtowe constituency.
Under Government rules, employees are entitled to claim up to 45 pence per mile in Mileage Allowance Relief from HMRC for work related journeys, excluding those made to and from a permanent place of work.
To be able to claim, the employee must be able to keep a record of journeys made before submitting them to HMRC.
Ms Soubry, who had been engaged in a memorial to commemorate the war dead that day said in a statement: “I never claim mileage. That’ll be my administrator in the office who will have delivered the wreaths.
“I didn’t put in the claim. She put in the claim. That’s the system. I never claimed a single penny, me personally, Anna Soubry, for any mileage I’ve ever driven.”
She went on to add: “I categorically have never claimed a penny in expenses for the wreaths or my travel to any service.
“A member of my staff drove around the constituency to deliver those wreaths to constituents.
“The staff member made a claim for their petrol costs.”
The article has divided opinion on social media, with many responders to the Mirror’s article on Twitter not reading beyond the headline.
But in the midst of what became an overnight furore, one Twitter user had this to say:
MrMeechan @hughgmeechan: @Mirror Politics dislike her, dislike Tories, but this is legit expense.
John Mann MP for Bassetlaw has urged David Cameron to sack Ms Soubry over the £14 claim, declaring: “Whatever the rules say it is fundamentally immoral.”
View the original Mirror article here.
Have your say below.
BroxVox 
No. Suggesting she be sacked is wrong. I’m not a Tory supporter , and ok if the claim was true then its morally wrong. However, if indeed this claim was made by an employee instead, do you think the papers would still go ahead and post an article on it? No. Its being done to slander the party wherever possible. Personally I don’t think they should be allowed to fuel expenses at all, especially when really it only benefits them and they could easily find alternative methods of transport, but hey, that’s one mans opinion maybe we should plaster that all over a newspaper 😉
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