'MP should have bought �2k TV locally'

AN ELECTRICAL retailer has criticised Suffolk MP David Ruffley for not shopping locally for an expensive TV.

Following expenses revelations about the Bury St Edmunds MP, it was revealed that he was refused the full amount when he claimed for a �2,175 television from Harrods.

But Richard Whymark, store manager at Stowmarket store BV Hicks Ltd, said the town's MP should have shopped locally rather than in London.

“For the local MP to try and encourage people to shop locally but then purchase from probably the most expensive department store in the country is not setting a good example. The high streets in towns like ours are feeling the pinch and it would have been encouraging to see MPs lead by example and shop locally. Any householder would not go down to the capital to buy something for their own home when it is on your own doorstep.”

Mr Whymark said many local celebrities, including chef Delia Smith, and DJ John Peel, who died in October 2004, regularly used the shop.

And he joked that if Mr Ruffley was paying that amount of money for a TV, it would probably be extremely big.

“Sets of that value tend to be extortionately large,” he said. “It is something that you could put into the Regal Theatre.”

Mr Ruffley said he paid out of his own pocket two-thirds of the cost of the TV and 70% of the cost of a bed.

He issued an “unconditional apology” to his constituents for not buy major electrical items locally.