Gateshead Council's Labour leader, Martin Gannon, had an interesting Facebook post recently (see above). For once it wasn't a post that attacked me but rather it was a barbed assault on MPs who accept free gifts, such as trips to sports events, dinners, tickets to the Brit Awards and so on. In a 6 month period, MPs had clocked up a range of gifts with a total value of £197,000. Martin wrote, "The words noses, pigs and trough spring to mind."
Let's just hope Martin himself couldn't have the same words applied to him. Well, it was easy enough to check on Gateshead Council's website. There all gifts received in connection with a member's role as a councillor must be declared. I decided to take a look.
So how many free gifts has Martin enjoyed since he became leader in 2016? 5? 10?, 20?
No! The answer is 49.
A bottle of champagne, flowers, trips to the races, tickets to the theatre and lots and lots of dinners (including some abroad)!
I added up the total value. It came to £3235.
If you would like to read all about Martin's gifts, click on the following link. Just be warned that it is a very long list and you may want to turn your nose up at it! But don't pig out on it!
http://democracy.gateshead.gov.uk/mgListGifts.aspx?UID=160&DR=24%2f07%2f2019-03%2f08%2f2020
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