Legg latest: Levitt spills the beans?

In a complete volte-face from his position only 7 days ago, Tom Levitt has sought to dampen down the flames of discontent surrounding his decision to keep the contents of his 'Legg letter' secret by revealing it was a bill after all. He issued this statement today:

Tom Levitt has agreed to repay to the House of Commons £389 as requested by Sir Thomas Legg. This is in respect of a sofa bed purchased in 2004 which Sir Thomas has deemed ‘extravagant’ even though the Fees Office approved it at the time. He said “Had I been asked to pay this balance at the time I would readily have agreed to do so

Remember that Levitt had said to the Independent that he'd rather resign than repay his expenses. He's clearly a man who likes to make decisions - and then completely change his mind. A true politician.

However, Levitt's critic of this morning, Councillor Anthony McKeown, throws a little hint that this may not be the end of the matter:

Whilst I don't know if this is the full details or not (of the letter)...

Indeed, we have to take Tom's word that this is all there was to the letter. After all, why get so steamed up about repaying £389? We await the local press later in the week with much interest.

But in the meantime, it's worth reflecting on all of this sofa bed business. Looking at the details of Levitt's Additional Cost Allowance claim for the year 2004-2005, you find that the total cost of the sofa bed was £1,599. Clearly, Legg considers that a reasonable price for a sofa bed is £1210 (!). The issue of why the public should subsidise Levitt's furniture is a point completely lost on a twerp like Legg, hardly surprising since he was appointed by Gordon Brown in the first place.

If Tom Levitt thinks this has now resolved the whole matter, and that we can now all get back to things as normal, he must think we were born yesterday. Apart from anything else, there's still the not insignificant issue of the capital gains tax.