THE TELEGRAPH: Anthony Steen, the Tory MP forced to stand down over his expenses, has suggested people were "jealous" because he lived in a house that resembled Royal residence Balmoral.
Mr Steen became the second Tory grandee to announce his retirement at the next election after the disclosure he spent tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money on his million-pound country home.
The MP, who spent nearly £90,000 on his second home over four years from his MP's expenses claims, insisted his behaviour was "impeccable" and he had merely been "caught on the wrong foot".
"As far as I am concerned and as of this day I don't know what the fuss is about," he told the BBC Radio 4's The World at One.
"We have a wretched Government here which has completely mucked up the system and caused the resignation of me and many others, because it was this Government that introduced the Freedom of Information Act and it is this Government that insisted on the things which caught me on the wrong foot.
"What right does the public have to interfere with my private life? None." MPs' Expenses: Anthony Steen Claims People Just Jealous of His Large House >>> | Thursday, May 21, 2009
