Details of MPs’ embarrassing expenses claims were leaked by a mole who was angry over the Government’s failure to equip troops properly, it has emerged.The mole was among the workers responsible for processing the claims and worked alongside serving soldiers, who were moonlighting to earn extra cash for body armour and equipment.
The soldiers were outraged at the lavish claims of MPs, while British soldiers were risking their lives in Afghanistan, according to the Daily Telegraph.
The mole decided to hand over the CD-Roms with scans of every MP’s receipts dating back five years to former SAS officer John Wick, who sold it to the newspaper.
Mr Wick, who served in the elite special-forces regiment during the 1970s, was named as the man who blew the whistle on the expenses scandal earlier this year
The former SAS officer, who is now head of a corporate intelligence company, said he had decided to expose the system to its ‘rotten core’
The mole told the Daily Telegraph: 'It's not easy to watch footage on the television news of a coffin draped in a Union Jack and then come into work the next day and see on your computer screen what MPs are taking for themselves.
'Hearing from the serving soldiers, about how they were having to work there to earn enough money to buy themselves decent equipment, while the MPs could find public money to buy themselves all sorts of extravagances, only added to the feeling that the public should know what was going on.
'That helped tip the balance in the decision of whether I should or should not leak the expenses data.
As the days progressed the soldiers joined in the conversation and became as angry as those doing the editing.
'When they're out in Afghanistan they're out there for Queen and country, earning £16,000 or £17,000 a year, knowing they're going to take losses, while the MPs are sitting in Parliament on £65,000, with massive expenses, and meanwhile you've got bodies coming home.'
The Daily Telegraph’s publication of the unredacted expenses files in May this year triggered a major political scandal, which led to the resignations of several senior MPS and an overhaul of the entire system.
The claims caused widespread public outrage among the public against MPs and a crisis in confidence in the British political system.
It resulted in a large number of resignations, sackings, de-selections and retirement announcements, together with public apologies and the repayment of expenses.
Redacted files were due to be published this summer but practices such as MPs 'flipping' the address of second homes would never have been discovered if the files had not been leaked early.
The Daily Telegraph revealed that employees at The Stationery Office – where the MPs’ files were sent for censorship before their intended publication by parliament – reacted when they first saw the MP’s claims for second homes, furniture and luxury goods.
The workers, who included parliamentary staff on secondment, became so agitated that they had to be told by managers to calm down.
One of the expense claims which particularly enraged the workers was Gordon Brown’s claim for a Sky TV sports package, which cost £36 per month.
The Prime Minister, who faces a critical test of his leadership at next week’s Labour party conference, has faced repeated criticism over his failure to equip troops and for his lacklustre handling of the expenses scandal.
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