EPPING FOREST: MP says 25k repayment is enough (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

I would refer Mrs Laing to the actions of Mr Cohen who is standing down as MP in the wake of this expenses scandal. This woman shows little if any insight at best and is clearly labouring under a delusion. We deserve better - time to go now methinks

She has been proved to be a deceitful person, orchestrated Tax Avoidance in circumstances where an ordinary hard working member of the public would have been locked up and hounded by the authorities.

Cannot wait to see her
booted out!

Eleanor Laing seems to be in no position to lecture the public or make claims about 'moral choices'.

Laing must take us for mugs if she thinks this is enough.
Her choice is either to pay the full £180,000 or stand down - or preferably both.
If she's not willing to take that step it's time for Cameron to pull his finger out and make the decision for her. Politicians are judged on their actions, not their words.

"She denied reports that she was unwilling to meet constituents"

She hasn't replied to a letter I sent her on this issue and I know of two other constituents who have said they have had no reply. I don't know anyone else who has written to her about her expenses. People have lots of unanswered questions. For instance, she claims the expenses system is a mess, yet when the opportunity for reform and greater transparency emerged last July, she voted for the status quo. She has consistently refused to explain herself, but instead has attempted to create a moral highground for herself week after week - to the extent that she portrays herself as some sort of victim.

If she doesn't respond to correspondence and won't have a public meeting, then it looks like she is dodging the issue. Even if she thinks she is absolutely legally and morally correct in her actions - claiming second home expenses on a property she declared to the tax man as her primary residence - she is first and foremost our elected representative and accountable to us. If she is only prepared to communicate to us via the local press, then she is completely failing in her duty. And on that basis, she should be sacked.

Another interesting fact is that her local political opponents are keeping very, very quiet about the expenses issue. The Labour and Liberal Democrat parties are not actively campaigning against her on the expenses issue. I suspect they would love to run against her in the general election because it provides the best opportunity to overturn a 'safe' Conservative majority. It's something the Conservative Association executive should bear in mind when assessing whether to reselect her.

Eleanor Laing and her colleagues have shamed this country due to the expenses debacle and their resistance to change. It has severely damaged Britain's moral leadership internationally, it has made a mockery of some of the world's oldest and once respected democratic institutions and it has given the likes of Robert Mugabe and Ayatollah Khamenei a stick to beat us with.

And still Eleanor Laing refuses to even apologise. Instead she makes a £25,000 "repayment" that does not equate to either the allowances she claimed on her second home (£80,000) or the capital gains tax she avoided by declaring it her primary residence (£180,000).

If Eleanor Laing does not step down and even if she succeeds in holding on to her seat by a small margin, she would have done irreparable harm to local constituents' faith in her and in parliamentary democracy. If local Conservatives have a conscience and possess some measure of rectitude, they would select a candidate that is trustworthy and better able to represent the people of Epping Forest.

www.sacklaing.org

How very refreshing that Mrs Laing has decided to make a moral choice after the taxpayer funded her million pound profit - how about adopting another moral choice - resign

Uncle Albert: She won't resign. Even if she did pay back £80,000, it is not good enough. Cameron called her behaviour "unacceptable", but she says she has nothing to apologise for - although no-one else in society can have the privileges she enjoys at tax-payers' expense! The only option you have is not to vote for her in the next general election. And if the local Conservatives and David Cameron insist on protecting her despite her outrageous abuse of the expenses system, then I suggest not voting Conservative ever again. I know I won't.

To those volunteers of the local conservative party I cannot understand how someone would actively support Mrs Laing and her "moral" stance and spend their valuable time canvassing for her at the next election.

This lady’s arrogance and total failure to understand constituents’ repugnance or even the enormity of her greed-driven crimes – sorry, misdemeanours – against the taxpayer is breathtaking. She has had her snout deeper in the trough than most of the Westminster Freeloaders and for that reason alone David Cameron should sack her immediately.

From my own experience of her buck-passing responses to constituents’ problems she is obviously more interested in property speculating using public funds than attempting to understand what ordinary Epping Forest people have to deal with in the real world.

Go now Mrs Laing and good riddance!

www.adrifterslegacy.
co.uk

It must be "terribly hurtful" to be discovered cheating. Pay up and resign!

It must be "terribly hurtful" to be found with your fingers in the till.
She does not answer the basic question - when you live so near work why do you need and second home home
Just resign!

Dan - re your comment about the local Labour and LibDems not campaigning against her - oh yes we are!