Tory MP learns lover's language and puts the £678 cost of lessons on expenses 

  • Nick Boles has put £678.80p on his expenses for language lessons
  • He entered a civil partnership with Israeli Shay Meshulam last year and says he is 'entitled' to learn the language
  • MPs can claim for language lessons if it helps with their job
  • Last month Mr Boles said rich pensioners should be stripped of some benefits

By MARTIN ROBINSON

PUBLISHED: 10:40, 9 August 2012 | UPDATED: 10:49, 9 August 2012


Shay Meshulam

Lessons: Tory Nick Boles has been learning Hebrew since he had a civil partnership with Israeli Shay Meshulam

A Tory MP has been learning Hebrew at the taxpayers' expense following his civil partnership to his Israeli partner, it was revealed today. 

Nick Boles, who has called for pensioners to be stripped of their winter fuel payments, free prescriptions and bus passes, claims he is 'entitled' to grasp the ancient Jewish language even if he has got hitched to Shay Meshulam. 

Instead of putting his hand in his own pocket he put £678.80p on his MP's expenses to cover the cost of his learning.

Mr Boles met Mr Meshulam on a Conservative Friends of Israel trip and they had a civil ceremony in London last March.

Critics said today the decision to take Hebrew lessons is simply to help him 'make conversation around the breakfast table'.

'Language instruction is a service available to Members of Parliament. I took some Hebrew lessons,'  he said in a statement to MailOnline.

'It is something I’m entitled to do,' he said, 'I’ve done it and that’s that,' he added to the Mirror.

Mr Boles, who is MP for Grantham and Stamford in the East Midlands, is believed to be in David Cameron's inner circle.

But this expenses claim could be embarrassing for the Prime Minister, as the MP has been accused of wasting precious cash.

Matthew Sinclair, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'Nick Boles has abused this taxpayer-funded perk in order to make conversation around the breakfast table a little easier. 

'If MPs want to learn the language of a foreign partner then they should pay for it themselves, not expect taxpayers to pick up the bill. 

'Mr Boles' unapologetic response is particular galling, given that an attitude of entitlement was one of the root causes of the expenses crisis in the last Parliament.'

Mr Boles is not the only MP to have taken language classes, which can be claimed for if they aid their work.

Rules: MPs can take language lessons if it helps with their work in Parliament

Rules: MPs can take language lessons if it helps with their work in Parliament

Culture Secretary Jeremy hunt had £3,000 worth of Mandarin tuition courtesy of the taxpayer two years after marrying a Chinese woman.

The pair are among nine serving MPs who got free classes in the last financial year. 

Last month Mr Boles said free bus passes and prescriptions must be axed for better-off pensioners.

He also wants other universal benefits, such as free television licences for the over 75s and winter fuel payments, to be means-tested from 2015.

Mr Boles conceded it will be politically difficult but insists that the Government must admit it cannot continue to protect the payments after the next election.

In a speech to the independent think tank, the Resolution Foundation, he said: 'If we are going to protect spending on pensions – as we should – equity between the generations requires that these cuts cannot only fall on adults of working age.

‘We need to acknowledge now that we will not be able to continue the protection of these other benefits for better-off pensioners after 2015.'