By IANS,
London : Indian-origin industrialist Swraj Paul said Sunday he had done “nothing wrong” after a newspaper disclosed he had claimed 110,000 pounds in expenses as a member of Britain’s upper chamber of parliament.
The Sunday Times said steel tycoon Paul had claimed the money despite being one of the wealthiest members of the House of Lords and owning a residential property with 25 luxury flats close to the houses of parliament in London.
“I have not read the article but I can say that I have done nothing wrong – I am entitled to these expenses,” Paul, the founder-chairman of the Caparo Group of industries, told IANS from his country home in Beaconsfield, southeast England.
According to the newspaper, only two of the wealthiest peers worth between 125 million and 1.2 billion pounds have made expense claims: Lord Grantchester, who takes “small expenses way below his entitlement”, and Paul, who claims the maximum he is allowed.
Paul told IANS: “As to the question why I had claimed these expenses while other wealthy peers hadn’t, I would say that if they don’t attend sessions (in parliament) how can they be entitled to expenses?”
The paper said Paul has kept a family home inside his London property for the past 43 years, but five years ago started claiming back his accommodation cost by saying his main home was outside the capital.
At first he designated a flat in a hotel he owns in Oxfordshire as his main address, but then he switched to a 6.1 million pound country mansion in Beaconsfield.
The report follows a recent political row in Britain over taxpayers’ money claimed by members of both houses of parliament as expenses that have been widely condemned as unethical and dubious.
“I don’t make the law, I just follow it,” said Paul, whose 500 million pound family fortune has helped him take the 88th spot on the Sunday Times Rich List.
“I was asked if I needed the money, and I said ‘I’ve always needed money. All my life I have worked to make money’,” he added.