Mandelson hides his ca$h

13th Mar 09 : POSTMAN

It's been revealed that Mandy has bunged his hoard of cash in a secret trust along with 4 other ministers.

And that he will also receive a European Commission pension at the age of 65 for around 4 years work.

A list of ministers interests has been published in a register,18 months after it had been first promised by Gordon Brown.

Blind trusts are used to ensure that ministers do not have direct control over financial assets.Mandy is supposed to not know what they are and therefore it doesn't affect his decisions as a minister."

Westminster insiders have expressed surprise that the Business Secretary, a career politician, is wealthy enough to justify establishing a trust.

Accountants believe that Lord Mandelson must have assets worth at least £500,000 and probably more than £1 million to make it worthwhile setting up a complicated trust. Annual fees must be paid to accountants and lawyers running the trusts.

Mike Warburton, an accountant who runs trusts at Grant Thornton, said: "I suspect the trust is going to be in excess of £1 million or why bother. The concept of a blind trust has always struck me as a bit dubious as you are only going to appoint a trustee who is someone you know pretty well and trust."

Criticism

The register has been critised by other MPs "This is a crude attempt to avoid scrutiny of ministers interests."

"Unless the register is properly produced for public consumption, how can we have confidence that conflicts of interests are not there."

The official list of ministerial interests went into much more than the detail which MPs and peers have to give to Parliamentary authorities.

The Prime Minister's spokesman said this afternoon: "The whole point is that Lord Mandelson doesn't know what they are and therefore it doesn't affect his decisions as a minister."

Sources:Loads just like Mandys ca$h hoard.

All of our readers can see the original news article we have on this in our 'open' Royal Mail Privatisation forum...

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