It may not be illegal but...

Via this blog post I have just discovered comes some very interesting news regarding 'anti sleaze candidate: self appointed' John Stevens:

And yet, when Stevens was an MEP, he received a set payment, currently worth around £40,000 per year, to run a constituency office. As MEP for the old Euro constituency of Thames Valley, when he first was elected in 1989, he listed in the 'grey list' - the European Parliament's official list of MEP contact details, an office at 70, High Street, Sunninghill, Ascot. However, by the official list published on the 18th February 1991, that address had disappeared, and his official contact addresses were listed as 40 Smith Square, London SW1, and 15 St James's Place, London SW1.

40 Smith Square is a house (in the most expensive area in London), while 15 St James's Place were the offices of his employers, Rothschild Asset Management.

So how much money did squeaky clean John Stevens get from the tax payer to have an office in the UK?

In today's money he would have received over £300,000.

Comments from Mr Stevens, anyone? Should I call Lib Dem HQ and ask them, as he's such a supporter?

UPDATE

According to information from the European Parliament office, Stevens only had a constituency office for 19 months out of the ten years he was an MEP.

This means there's about £212000 meant for his office which didn't go on one.