Janet Anderson has confessed Labour colleague Peter Pike was not the only East Lancashire MP to employ a family member as a personal assistant at Westminster.

Burnley backbencher Mr Pike came under fire for the fact his daughter Jane was paid out of his expenses allowance of £153,989 last year - the fourth highest of 659 MPs - to manage his Commons office and public relations.

But Rossendale and Darwen MP Mrs Anderson - who claimed £135,779 - revealed her 25-year-old son David is paid out of her staff allowance for the same tasks.

She said: "When my previous PA got a job with Age Concern, I was in a bit of a spot and he came in to help out as he was at a loose end. He proved to be very good and I took him on full time."

WHILE on the subject of Parliamentary expenses, voters may wonder if our local Peers are better value than their MPs.

Representatives in the Commons charged between £106,271 (Hyndburn's Greg Pope) and Mr Pike's £153,989.

Pendle's Tony Greaves cost just £23,849 for 69 days at the House of Lords; former council leader Lord Taylor of Blackburn, the top total of £54,292 for 165 days at Westminster; Lord Patel of Blackburn £37,149 for 137 days; Baroness Massey of Darwen £19,834 for 153 days; and former Bishop of Blackburn Alan Chesters £2,172 for ten days before he quit the religious job on August 31 last year.

And they don't get the MPs' £57,845 salary let alone Blackburn MP Mr Straw's Cabinet wage of £118,437.

RIBBLE Valley MP Nigel Evans was in New York this month to address Parliamentarians from across the world in the margins of the United Nations.

He revealed his hotel next to the UN HQ was so draughty that he had to wear earplugs to stay asleep.

But Mr Evans added: "I was afraid my international colleagues from the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which paid for the trip, might have bought their own earplugs for my speech!"

AFTER Pendle MP Gordon Prentice asked Tony Blair what he had done worthwhile in ten years as Labour leader and seven as Prime Minister, one experienced Westminster observer was nonplussed.

He said: "What is Gordon up to? Is he on a suicide mission or has he decided the only way to beat the Liberal Democrat challenge in his constituency is to say "A vote for me is a vote against Tony Blair and the Iraq war?'"

BURNLEY MP Peter Pike has renewed his call to be allowed Fridays off from his day job at Westminster to spend more time in his constituency.

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Janet Anderson revealed this week that Pate de Foie Gras suddenly appeared on the menu in the Strangers and Members Dining Room of the House of Commons.

I immediately complained through the Catering Committee and Sue Harrison, Director of the Refreshment Department about this and she has been assured me that it has been taken off the menu now.

Mrs Anderson added: "What they do to the geese is just horrible. They clamp their beaks open, forcefeed them maize and leave them until their livers burst and I do not think the Mother of Parliaments should be encouraging this kind of unbelievably cruel practice."