EXCLUSIVE: Follett – there are no donations
PinkNews.co.uk Exclusive
Equality minister Barbara Follett has responded to allegations that she has received donations from her husband that she did not declare.
“Because I want to give the people of Stevenage the best possible service I can, I spend all of my MP’s salary, allowances and some of my personal income running my constituency and parliamentary offices,” she said in a statement to PinkNews.co.uk.
“There are no donations involved.
“The funds are either from my parliamentary income, or from the joint accounts that I hold with my husband, Ken Follett.
“As most of the money in these joint accounts is earned by my husband he is quite correct to say that the taxpayer is not subsidising his lifestyle. In fact, it is the other way around.”
In an appearance BBC’s Sunday AM with Andrew Marr on 28th October the minister’s husband, multi-millionaire novelist Ken Follett, said:
“She spends all of her allowances and all of her salary running her office and I actually subsidise it to the tune of every year at least a hundred thousand pounds a year.”
Financial support from one source of more than £1000 has to be registered with the Electoral Commission recorded in the Register of Members’ Interests.
Ms Follett is a work and pensions minister in addition to her equality responsibilities.
