It’s a disgrace MPs such as Taiwo Owatemi pick pockets of skint taxpayers to pay for pets

Madness that MPs bill us for their pets

AFTER a week of bleak economic news, millions of us are feeling the pinch.

But guess what? That doesn’t stop privileged MPs feather-bedding their own lifestyles at our expense.

Today we reveal a senior Labour MP is using taxpayer cash to pay “pet rent”; for her cockapoo dog.

Taiwo Owatemi is claiming £900 a year extra in expenses so her pet pooch Bella can live with her.

The Government whip and former Shadow Minister is not alone among MPs in being eligible to claim for this benefit.

But it shows a staggering sense of self-entitlement from a political elite divorced from the hard grind faced by ordinary voters.

Only last week we learned that Rachel Reeves enjoyed free tickets to a Sabrina Carpenter concert.

The Chancellor then introduced billions of pounds of spending cuts that will hammer people across the country.

According to the Government’s own analysis, more than three million households will lose £1,720 a year on average.

As a whip, Ms Owatemi will push these cuts through Parliament.

No doubt her dog Bella will be a great comfort to her.

But who knows how many other MPs are taking advantage of the same loophole, getting the public to fund their choice to have a four-legged friend?

Ms Owatemi and all MPs should have been paying for pets out of their £91,346 salary, which is due to rise to almost £94,000 this week.

It is a disgrace that instead they are free to pick the pockets of skint taxpayers.

Fortunes of evil

LABOUR’S pledge to smash the small boat gangs is sounding hollower by the day.

Is it any wonder callous people- smugglers are raking in £200million or more a year when staggering numbers of migrants are crossing the Channel?

The Government’s much-trumpeted plans to get to grips with the crisis are no more than sticking plasters.

An international crime summit tomorrow will target the Chinese firms that make most of the disgracefully flimsy dinghies used by the traffickers.

This is welcome, but any hope that it will stem the trade is pie in the sky.

The gangs will just buy the boats from elsewhere.

The only way to break their business model is with a proper deterrent, a clamp on human rights laws and an end to the handout culture which makes us such a magnet.

Fat chance of any of that under Labour.