Former city council leader backs Clare Short in expenses row

May 16 2009 by William Oliphant, Birmingham Mail

ONE of Birmingham’s best-known politicians today threw his support behind MP Clare Short after she was dragged into the expenses row.

Former Birmingham City Council leader Sir Albert Bore backed his ex-Labour colleague after it emerged she had repaid £8,000 wrongly claimed on a mortgage for her Handsworth home.

Ladywood Independent MP Ms Short insisted yesterday she was “straight as a die” and had repaid the money three years ago.

Sir Albert, a Labour councillor for Ladywood, called her mistake “simple and understandable”.

He said: “I have known Clare for many years and I know her to be a moral person. It appears this is simply an administrative error.

“I understand there was a very simple and understandable mistake made a number of years ago.

“That was rectified by Clare herself before any of this news was brought into the public domain.”

Fellow Ladywood councillor Ayoub Khan, who is standing against Ms Short in the next general election, said: “I feel very sympathetic towards Ms Short on this occasion because it seems clear to me that it was an honest mistake.