Anne Main and a rent-free flat for her daughter 25 miles from home

Anne Main said her daughter lived at the flat 'on and off?

Mrs Main, the MP for St Albans, has claimed a 10 per cent second home discount on her council tax for the apartment in her constituency even though her 27-year-old daughter, Claire Tonks, has lived there for up to three years.

This discount can only be claimed if no one lives at the property full-time.

Mrs Main’s principal home is a large detached house in Beaconsfield, Bucks, 25 miles from St Albans. The house is roughly six miles further from Westminster than the St Albans flat. Mrs Main has no regular accommodation in the capital.

The MP charged the taxpayer £1,095.68 a month in mortgage interest payments for the flat, along with service charges, utility bills and furnishing costs. She has claimed a 10 per cent discount on council tax since 2004 — amounting to £171.09 last year — and submitted the bill on her expenses.

Two neighbours who in live in other flats in the building — who the Telegraph spoke to alongside the MP yesterday — both said that it was the first time they had met her.

Several neighbours were familiar, however, with Miss Tonks, a marketing expert who works for Kids Industries, which specialises in advising companies how best to target families. She was ill in bed in the flat yesterday and did not answer telephone calls. Challenged by The Telegraph as to why Miss Tonks was apparently living at the taxpayer-funded apartment, Mrs Main confirmed that her daughter paid no rent and insisted that she stayed there only “two or three times a week”.

She added: “There is this idea that people have been buying these flats for children to live in, but that’s not the case for my daughter, she’s moving out.”

Miss Tonks, who has kept the surname of her late father, appears on the electoral roll at the St Albans property and, in 2008, registered the address with Companies House when she took on a directorship with Kids Industries. By law, addresses lodged with Companies House must relate to the “usual residential addresses” of the director.

Under the rules relating to second home allowances, MPs are entitled to claim only for expenses incurred in the course of parliamentary duties and cannot claim “for anyone other than yourself”.

Mrs Main bought the flat in 2006, putting solicitors’ costs and arrangement fees on her allowances. Around the same time, Miss Tonks moved in. Since then, Mrs Main has continued to submit claims for furnishings and repairs for the flat, including a £350 washing machine and laminate flooring at £465. Mrs Main shares her main home with her husband Andrew and her three other children. The house has a swimming pool, large gardens and a double garage.

Asked about Miss Tonks’s living arrangements, Mrs Main added: “She’s looking for a place in London now; she certainly doesn’t want to spend her time rattling around here.

“I consulted the [Commons] fees office, and asked if family members were allowed to stay with me in the flat. I was told it was perfectly acceptable and as a parent, who sees very little of her family, it has been enormously supportive to have her there, albeit that this was only ever going to be a temporary measure.”