A Dundee MP has defended spending thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ cash on IKEA furniture.
Chris Law forked out £4,036 at the Nordic home store to kit out his new constituency office in Lochee after he was elected to represent Dundee West in May.
It is by far the largest furniture claim made by the new crop of Tayside and Fife MPs since the SNP’s clean sweep of Courier Country at the general election although it is understood many have yet to file those expenses.
Mr Law’s shopping spree at the Edinburgh branch of IKEA was included in the latest batch of MPs’ claims for August and September, which was published by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority this week.
Mr Law and a member of staff hired a van and drove to Edinburgh for the trip.
He then led his team in the unenviable task of assembling thousands of pounds worth of furniture from the Swedish flat-pack specialist.
He told The Courier he used the £6,000 “start-up” allocation for new MPs to furnish his office, which he leases from Dundee City Council for the same sum, “completely from scratch”.
“In order to get up and running as quickly as possible, and to minimise costs, I hired a van and made a trip to IKEA to buy office furniture, such as desks and drawers for my team in Lochee, who assist members of the public with all sorts of queries during the week whilst I am at Westminster,” he said.
“With my team’s help, I built the furniture over the course of a couple of days and in the process developed a mild case of repetitive-strain injury, but I’m glad to say it settled down quickly.”
He added: “This was a one-off expense to set up my constituency office and I’m confident that it represents good value for money for the taxpayer.”
Mr Law, who was a finance adviser, is not the only MP who has been out furniture shopping.
Roger Mullin, the SNP MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, has spent £2,792.86 on office furniture since May, although his shop of choice seems to be Homebase.
Prior to the latest August/September batch of claims, Douglas Chapman, who represents Dunfermline and West Fife, claimed £779 through IKEA online.
Angus MP Mike Weir, who is one of the SNP’s Westminster old guard and its chief whip, was reimbursed £205.06 for his spending at Complete Office Solutions.