Smoke & Mirrors

From the desk of Scott Wright:

Article

Ok so he's given the "profit after expenses" back to the taxpayer, he said months ago that he would do this so a bit of a non-story really.

BUT the real issues for me are as follows:

A) He has sold it only because mortgage interest is not claimable under expenses changes and renting is, i.e. he has done it so he can continue to have a second home funded by the taxpayer

B) He has engaged in "flipping" as he has claimed SECOND HOME expenses on this property and yet there is no mention of CGT (unless he is being exempted by returning the full 100% profit that is)

C) I could in the space of half an hour easily locate him 20 suitable properties within his constituency (or within reasonable distance) with a cost FAR FAR lower than £280,000 in a "nice area" of Sheffield, he has already gone massively overboard and used taxpayers to live beyond the ordinary means an MPs salary would afford.

D) He bought it from a "friend", did Clegg pay this "friend" the going market rate for the property or was it an over inflated price because the mortgage interest was reclaimable?