We’ve all been there – when you open that innocuous looking letter in the post only for your eyes to widen in horror as you see the huge size of the phone bill inside. But while the shocking realisation of a high bill might normally prompt an angry call with the phone company, or a household ban on long-distance calls, for the hapless transport secretary Chris Grayling, it seems only to have been met by a shrug of the shoulders.
According to MP expense claims released last week, in August and September last year the transport secretary claimed a massive £958 in telephone bills for his constituency office – including £200 for mobile internet. Fair enough, you might think – that’s not too bad for an annual bill. Not so, Mr S can confirm that this amount was just for those two months. Grayling’s total telephone bill for 2018 up to September (more recent expense forms are not yet available) is now a whopping £3,847. If it continues at this rate, it will be over five thousand pounds for the entire year. By comparison, Grayling’s colleague in the health department has only spent one third of the amount. Fortunately for the transport secretary, he is able to claim this rather large bill on expenses, which subsequently gets passed on to the taxpayer.
Mr S has to wonder though, what could Grayling possibly be spending so much time on the phone for? Could it be frantic phone calls to oversea ferry companies, to try and find someone who actually owns any ships? Or frantic calls to train companies to see why there aren’t any trains?
Mr S invites readers to put forward their own suggestions in the comments….
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