Wreath laid at war memorial claimed on MP’s expenses

Labour MP Tom Levitt who claimed for the cost of a wreath for a Remembrance event

Tom Levitt, the Labour MP for High Peak, submitted the expenses claim on Nov 30, 2006, a few weeks after the annual Remembrance events.

However, it was rejected by the fees office, which told him it was not allowed under the rules. Yesterday, Mr Levitt, who employs his wife Teresa as his parliamentary assistant, said the claim for the wreath had been made in error and blamed a member of his staff.

“The fees office were quite right to reject it,” he said. “By the time I spotted the error, the claim had been submitted and I did not expect it to be paid. I have paid for two wreaths each year for 12 years from my own money and this is the only time this error has been made.”

Mr Levitt, a former Parliamentary Private Secretary to Hilary Benn, the then Secretary of State for International Development, also claimed for thousands of pounds of renovation work on the London home. He first hired a company of Polish builders in January 2007, two years after buying a £275,000 two-bedroom maisonette, in south London.

The former teacher, who once served on the Standards and Privileges Committee – responsible for monitoring MPs’ conduct – had nominated the property as his second home, allowing him to claim his additional costs allowance on it, while retaining his home in Buxton, Derbyshire, as his main residence.

He hired the company to replace the upstairs carpets with wood laminate flooring and solid oak skirting boards. The builders also fitted a lavatory and cistern and carried out some general decoration.

Mr Levitt was so taken with their work that he decided to hire them to carry out similar work in the downstairs lounge and hall. Here they once again removed carpets and replaced them with laminate flooring and put in skirting boards, as well as repairing window frames, moving an electric socket and tidying up wiring.

However Mr Levitt’s claim for £5,281 to cover the cost of the work appears to have alarmed the fees office, which rang him for an explanation.

In a letter, Mr Levitt told the fees office that his flat appeared not to have been redecorated since it was built in the 1970s and required significant renovation. He praised the Poles’ work, and the fees office authorised payment of the bill.

In January last year, Mr Levitt decided to carry out further work and fitted a new bathroom, at a cost of £8,013.77.

This time the fees office refused to pay the full amount, pointing out in a letter to Mr Levitt that the “John Lewis list”, which sets a limit on the amount MPs can be reimbursed for household items, specifies £6,335 as the maximum amount allowed for the installation of a bathroom.

It also warned the MP that he might face public criticism in future should such claims be exposed.

Mr Levitt said yesterday: “I expected the 'John Lewis’ maximum to be applied and it was. The bathroom is small and the fittings probably as old as the flat.

“The replacement was 'like for like’ with the only 'enhancement’ being a bathroom cupboard with a shaving mirror above the sink – there was not one there before. And labour costs in London are not cheap.”

Following the move, Mr Levitt entered into a correspondence with the fees office in which he tried to explain the complicated joint mortgage arrangements on his Buxton constituency home and his London property. Mr Levitt explained that he claimed a proportion of the joint mortgage to cover the interest payments on his second home.

However, examination of his previous mortgage interest payments by the fees office showed that he had over-claimed by £6,000, which he duly returned.

When the Telegraph first began its disclosures over MPs’ expenses, he accused it of “conniving with criminals in gutter journalism”.

Yesterday he said: “As a former member of the Standards and Privileges Committee, my conscience is clear.”