Snout in the Trough Alert - Mike Rumbles

I see my esteemed Lib Dem MSP Mike Rumbles has been using the vagaries of the publicly funded Edinburgh accommodation allowance (EAA), which helps MSPs to buy property in Edinburgh, to race up the property ladder purchasing three flats in eight years. He is the first MSP to achieve three Mortgages in this particular trough.

Not bad that and according to the Scotsman:

Mr Rumbles sold two properties and reinvested in larger ones with help from the public fund, eventually making a £40,000 profit. He now owns a £300,000 flat in an exclusive district of the capital, and claimed about £10,000 a year to help pay off his mortgage.

They go on to report

Yesterday, Mr Rumbles defended his use of the allowance.

He said: "I have bought three flats in Edinburgh. I made a loss on the sale of the first flat. And on the sale of the second flat I paid a capital-gains tax of 40 per cent.

So now he's complaining he had to pay Capital Gains Tax on money he got from us the taxpayers, what a bloody cheek.

One can only hope that he will soon be joining the ranks of the unemployed, rather than the underemployed at Holyrood.

This is not the first time some of the Lib Dems have been found out for using this particular trough

The Scotsman - Taxpayer subsidies help Lib Dem to buy three flats in capital