Sir George Young, the 6th Baronet of his family, owns a constituency home near Andover, HantsIn total, the Old Etonian chairman of the standards and privileges committee claimed £127,159 between 2001 and 2008 for his flat in Victoria, within walking distance of the House of Commons.
By far his biggest outgoing was the interest repayments on the flat he bought for £397,000 in 2005, which averaged more than £1,400 a month.
Sir George, 67, MP for North West Hampshire, also claims the full rate of council tax on the band G property, which amounted to £1,146 in 2008-09, even though he would be eligible for a discount because it is his second home.
He has also claimed for electrical items including a £699 washer-dryer (reduced to £500 by the fees office) and a £449 dishwasher (reduced to £375), as well as modest food claims of £5 a week.
The former Cabinet minister is not the only member of his family to benefit from his taxpayer-funded expenses; he employs his daughter Camilla as his office manager. Although her salary is not declared, Sir George paid his staff a total of £83,682 last year.
Sir George, the 6th Baronet of his family, whose motto is Be Right and Persist, has been an MP since 1974 and served as a junior health minister and environment minister in Baroness Thatcher’s government. He later joined a backbench rebellion against the poll tax, though he was brought back into the fold as a party whip. He served as transport secretary in the final years of John Major’s government.
William Hague made Sir George the shadow leader of the House following the Conservatives’ defeat in 1997. He resigned from the shadow cabinet in 2000 to put his name forward as a successor to Betty Boothroyd as Speaker, when he was considered by many to be the front-runner before Mr Martin was given the job.
As well as his flat in London, Sir George has a constituency home in a village near Andover, which he owns outright. Before buying his London property, he rented a flat nearby.
Asked about his expense claims yesterday, Sir George said he had claimed the full rate of council tax on his London home because he “didn’t know about the discount” and said he also paid the full rate of council tax on his other home. He said of the electrical items he bought: “These machines were in the flat that I bought. They were replaced like-for-like by items from John Lewis when they were beyond repair.”
He has published all his claims from 2006-07 onwards on his website.
Sir George Young
Job: backbench Conservative MP
Salary: £64,766
Total second home claims
2004-05: £17,694
2005-06: £20,442
2006-07: £22,110
2007-08: £23,083
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