Expenses create image problem for UK conservatives

Revelations that Conservative politicians claimed public funds to clean swimming pools and tend gardens have undermined leader David Cameron's attempts to tone down the party's elitist image. The disclosures about MPs' expense claims in The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday reinforce the party's traditional image as rooted in a wealthy, land-owning class.
They could undermine Cameron's efforts to win over working and middle-class voters whose support the party needs to end a dozen years in the political wilderness and win the next general election, due by mid-2010. The news that taxpayers are subsidising some Conservative MPs' lavish lifestyles is particularly galling for many hard-pressed voters when the economy is in deep recession and thousands are being thrown out of work. "I am angry about what has happened. It is out of order. Some of this is an abuse of taxpayers' money and I am going to deal with it," Cameron vowed.
The Daily Telegraph said the taxpayer funded part of the 14,000 pounds a year that Conservative former cabinet minister Douglas Hogg paid the housekeeper at his country house. David Heathcoat-Amory claimed 389 pounds for manure for his garden, the newspaper said. Another senior Conservative, James Arbuthnot, claimed for cleaning his swimming pool but told the Telegraph he would repay the money. Michael Spicer claimed for a chandelier to be installed.
Hogg denied he had submitted a 2,000 pound claim to clear out the moat around his property. He told reporters his claims "fall within both the spirit and the letter of the rules". Britain's 646 MPs receive an annual salary of almost 65,000 pounds - more than double the national average - but also claimed 93 million pounds in allowances last year. They have shown little urgency in reforming the system.
The right-leaning Telegraph, which has obtained details of the expense claims, has embarrassed both Labour and the Conservatives with a steady dripfeed of damaging revelations in the last few days. After revealing details of thousands of pounds of claims by Labour politicians, including Prime Minister Gordon Brown and cabinet colleagues, the paper revealed on Tuesday how Conservative "grandees" had subsidised their country estates at taxpayers' expense.