Friends of Levitt come out to support 'Making Allowances' - and bend the truth

It's a been a little while now since Tom Levitt performed his one-man play 'Making Allowances', and it's true to say that it wasn't exactly a huge success in terms of garnering widespread attention. Whilst the BBC certainly seemed to over-indulge Levitt, what with several slots on Radio 4, plus the Politics Show piece, it was somehow fitting that the only real mainstream reaction came from the Sunday Telegraph, which can be read here.

The review is largely sympathetic, but does suggest the audience should perhaps be throwing eggs, or that he should turn it into panto ("Jack and the Beancounters").

To find reviews elsewhere, you really do have to scrape the bottom of the internet's barrel. With less than 140 characters, one finds a tweet by Martin Rosenbaum, a producer of political documentaries, who considered the play "a bit unpolished but thoughtful, amusing, well-performed, nice twist at end" (not having seen the play, we're imagining that the 'twist' doesn't involve a contrite Levitt seeking redemption via suicide).

We also have a long review by a self-declared "old friend" of Levitt, one Wiktor Moszczynski, whose blog declares that Levitt was "innocent" of the allegations levelled at him by both "reactionary and plebian (sic) accusers". We're proud to be plebs Wiktor! But perhaps you should have read this blog first? Wiktor's blog goes on to defend the vile un-seated former immigration minister, Phil Woolas, so it's clear where he's coming from.

Even worse is the comment left on the blog by a Linda Lewis, who we are reliably informed is an old friend of Levitt. She spends a large amount of time performing an Orwellian whitewash regarding Levitt's mortgage claims, suggesting the civil servants had got it wrong, and that Levitt was in the clear. Yet we all know that Levitt over-claimed for his mortgage, something he has not denied. Lewis goes on to suggest that ordinary people get treated with sympathy for fraud, and that such as Levitt got a harder time because he was an MP. Only someone who calls themselves a friend of this man could believe such nonsense.

But there we are - one hopes these rather limited reactions spell the end of the whole matter, although Levitt and his producer, Chris Mellor, are threatening to take the play on a nationwide tour. We'll be waiting if he decides to perform in the High Peak.

The Buxton Advertiser slams Levitt over latest expenses revelations

The Buxton Advertiser were this week the only local newspaper to take up the issue of the latest revelations about Tom Levitt's 2008/2009 expenses claims. You may remember that the revelations last week came too late for the newspapers.

Journalist Michael Broomhead - who previously seemed to be letting Levitt off lightly regarding the Capital Gains Tax issue - has now laid into him, choosing to highlight his smaller claims for hair clippers (£24.99) and a wine glass (£21.50), and contrasting this with the hardship being suffered by many at this time of year.

Now just over a week ago, we did promise a fuller analysis. Suffice to say we're working on it, and will be back shortly...

Levitt confesses to Capital Gains Tax-dodge

Tom Levitt has now publicly confessed to his 'legal' avoidance of capital gains tax:

When asked about the claims ... he confirmed that no tax was paid on the sale

Two local newspapers have decided to take up the exclusive story about Tom Levitt's tax affairs that was broken on this website last Sunday and continued on Monday. There are significant - and contradictory - differences between each story.

So let's start with the contradictions. In the Buxton Advertiser, Levitt is apparently quoted as saying that our allegation that he was able to avoid capital gains tax "is not true" whilst the article in the Glossop Advertiser reveals the quote to actually be a press release which lazy journalists in the Buxton paper - seemingly with a political axe to grind - have decided to 'cut and paste' to suit their story. Here's the same phrase appearing in the (much better) Advertiser story (emphasis added):

The innuendo and implication in the poisonous stories currently circulating is that I was involved in something underhand. This is not true and I resent this...

See how the meaning has been changed?

The Buxton Advertiser is also badly off-target with the main thrust of our blog articles. It mentions that Legg had given Levitt a clean bill of health regarding 'flipping' - but we never accused Levitt of that in the first place. We're not sure the journalist knows what he's talking about.

Ultimately, Levitt is in denial about the main issue before not only him, but his party. That is that he chose to conceal the "legal" capital gains tax-dodge despite concerns raised by those in his party when the expenses scandal broke. This issue is tackled by neither newspaper, and the main focus is on the 'Legg refund'..

What is worse for High Peak Labour Party is that, so far, they have failed to bring this issue to the attention of the public in an open way. Although Councillor Anthony McKeown has criticised Levitt's openness regarding the Legg letter, we know that he knew about the capital gains tax-dodge, but did not speak out about it. And clearly, the atmosphere in the local Labour Party is poor, or we would not have people contacting us with the information. This 'invisible' show of public unity with Levitt by local Councillors may be 'party discipline', but it also means that are busy lashing themselves to the mast of Levitt's sinking ship.

No doubt there'll be more to say about these issues in due course.

Press reaction to Levitt's column

We await to see what the reaction of the local press will be to the new revelations from the Sunday Telegraph, but if their reaction to the press release put out by Levitt a week earlier is anything to go by, they will do their best to mount a damage limitation exercise for him.

The Buxton Advertiser have penned the most journalistic piece about Levitt - a balance between his own press release and some context, hinting at a 'tide of anger. They also carried this reader's letter on their website.

The Glossop Chronicle has pretty much regurgitated Levitt's press release line for line.

Meanwhile, the Glossop Advertiser has - regurgitated Levitt's press release line for line!

Of the two Glossop publications, the Advertiser is arguably more pro-Levitt, although there's not much to separate them, especially given that the Chronicle carries Levitt's weekly column in their pages.

The letters page in the respective papers are usually more interesting, though some of our readers tell us that the Advertiser have a habit of editing reader's letters to excise criticism of Levitt. However, with the tide of anger bound to increase, it will be a difficult job to do so from now on.

What the papers said

We thought we'd prepare a little digest of local press attention regarding Levitt's expenses in the recent past. So here goes:

The Glossop Advertiser took a look at Tom's expenses for the year 2005/2006 back in November 2006, when it was revealed he had claimed nearly £140,000. Of that, £16,977 was claimed for his second home, £74,262 for staff salaries (one full-time and 3 part-time assistants), £21,650 for office costs, £12,044 for postage and £4,417 for stationary, as well as £9,031 for travel expenses. The headline? 'MPs expenses are 85% below cap' - the calm before the storm?.

12 months later in 2007 the Glossop Advertiser returns again placing him in the Top 10 (actually, he was 8th). For 2006/2007, the total was now £168,660, and in hindsight, the article makes an interesting and no doubt worrying comparison for Levitt by pointing out the top claimant was the Dewsbury MP Shahid Malik. However, the article does not go into detail beyond the fact that he claimed a combined £31,615 for mail and stationary, doubling the total for the previous year.

Also focusing on Tom this month was the Buxton Advertiser, pointing out that the increase on last year's total bill for the taxpayer was £29,103. Again, the mail bill is the main focus, with Levitt pointing out it's high because he likes to communicate with his constituents. The provided the following details about all of the expenses claimed:

London Accommodation - 20,310
Office running costs - 23,403
Staff - 80,085
Members travel - 11,842
Staff travel - 475
Stationery - 7,915
Postage - 23,700
Computer Equip - 930
Total - 168,660

Finally, the Buxton Advertiser compares Levitt with three other local MPs - Charlotte Atkins, Patrick McLoughlin and Nicholas Winterton - and finds that he comes top of the list.

The Glossop Advertiser was back on Tom's case in January 2008 to point out that Levitt was reported to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards about the latter bill. Though Levitt was quick to trumpet that he had been cleared, current events must mean that he's worried it will be looked at again. However, the paper wasn't done with Tom yet, and in February 2008 it looked at the issue of his wife's wages. The article also revealed Levitt claimed £80,085 in staff costs and £7,725 for travel.

Much more recently, in April this year, The Derbyshire Times referred to Levitt as 'the most expensive Derbyshire MP', ranking at 48th in the country for his claims for the year 2007/2008. Levitt's breakdown is given as the following - £164,620 in total, costs of £22,450 for his second home, £14,287 for travel expenses, of which £2,955 was claimed against the costs of 22 journeys taken by his wife.

No doubt there'll be much more press attention in the coming weeks, especially given Levitt's admission yesterday* that he claimed more than he was entitled for mortgage costs.

*when this link no longer works, try this screen grab