I couldn’t help feeling a little schadenfreude last night as Sky broke the news that Stephen Crabb MP is the latest Member of Parliament to be caught up in the expenses scandal. That may seem mean, but this is the guy who has tried to garner a reputation as being squeaky clean. I have a special interest in his career, as he’s the MP for my home constituency (Preseli Pembrokeshire) in western Wales. He took his seat in 2005, with a majority of just 607, from Labour. Since then he’s been particularly good at turning up at the right events in the area and having his photo taken, usually with a big smile on his face. This has served him well.

Until now perhaps. Last night it emerged that he had claimed he was living in a rented room, in an apartment which belongs to another MP. Well that makes little sense, particularly as he has a wife and children. He designated this his main home so that he could claim expenses to renovate a second home in Wales.

This is his attempt at an explanation:

“The switch of my designated second home from London to the constituency in October 2007 was actually suggested to me by an official in the fees office.”

Well you must be really dumb then Mr Crabb. Come on, you have an MBA from one of the best business schools in the world, a course which teaches ethics for goodness sake. You couldn’t see for one second that what you were doing was a tad questionable?

Ah, it makes me sick. This guy has the slimmest majority, he’s been in parliament for not even one term, and he’s playing the system already. Now I know a lot of MPs in my party are doing the same thing, but as a Pembrokeshire person, to see somebody so fresh, so highly educated, with so much promise doing this is just plain disappointing. I hope the voters of Preseli Pembrokeshire give him a good kicking over this at the election; that 600 vote majority could easily dissolve when people find out that their bright young MP is on the take.

Mr Crabb likes to remind people of his humble beginnings. We have a lot of things in common – we went to the same schools, and both lived in the not-so-nice parts of Pembrokeshire. You’d have thought that after working his whole life for something better, a £65,000 salary, a free second home and very generous expenses would be enough. Not to mention a bright future in the Conservative party. Perhaps, more often, he should remember where he came from.