From the party that brought you Nanny on the State and Mistress on the State, the Tory Party now presents……Career Break on the State!

Yes, Shadow Deputy Whip Andrew Robathan and scourge of many a Labour minister over expenses and alleged ”abuses of power” has declared he employs his wife Rachel as a senior researcher on upto £29,000 pro rata in the latest Tory ‘Right to Know’ Register.

Rachel, you may remember, is leader of the Contact group of Tory MPs wives who organised a debate between the candidates for the Tory leadership in 2005. Tellingly, Michael White included this little aside in a piece at the time:

The idea of inviting all four contenders to speak, then face the same two questions, is attributed to Rachel Robathan, wife of Andrew Robathan, Tory MP for Blaby. A City fund manager who is now taking a career break to raise a young family, she took over chairing the group from Anne Jenkin…

Normal maternity leave entitles mums to receive 90% of the salary for the first six weeks of their maternity leave, followed by a maximum of £117.18 a week for the remaining 33 weeks.

Thankfully Andrew - who is campaigning against state funding for free swimming for the young and old - has found a novel way of extending the career break - we pay for it!

As our Dave says in the forward to the Right to Know Register:

“Politicians need to do everything they can to regain the trust of the British people, and transparency has a key part to play in that process. We must show that we’re spending taxpayers money sensibly and correctly.”

By the way, it’s Andrew’s birthday today.

Happy Birthday Andrew.

We’d say make a wish but we’re sure it’s already come true.

Sure beats paying for a nanny!