Tuesday, 2 June 2009

Geoff Hoon pays back allowances money

Secretary of State for Transport, Geoff Hoon.

Mr Hoon's constituency home was funded by the taxpayer while he was also claiming parliamentary allowances for a London town house, it has been disclosed.

During 2006, he claimed hundreds of pounds for the Derbyshire house after "flipping" his designated second home to the capital.

The Transport Secretary has now apologised "unreservedly" for what he described as an "inadvertent administrative error" and repaid £384 to the parliamentary authorities.

Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, has also repaid more than £600 after it emerged that he had funded two different second homes at the same time from his expenses.

Gordon Brown was under increasing pressure to take action against Cabinet ministers who have made questionable expense claims. Several back-bench MPs have been suspended from the Labour Party but no senior figures have been disciplined.

Today, David Chaytor, the Labour MP for Bury North, announced that he would resign from parliament at the next election after claiming a 'phantom' mortgage on his expenses.

Meanwhile, Patricia Hewitt, the former Cabinet minister, also said she was standing down at the next election.

She claimed that her decision had nothing to do with the on-going MPs' expenses scandal.

The Daily Telegraph disclosed that Mr Hoon, like Mr Darling, made a series of claims covering two properties during the same period.

Between 2002 and July, 2006, Mr Hoon lived in a grace-and-favour apartment as Defence Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons.

During this time, he claimed parliamentary expenses for his family home. However, after leaving the grace-and-favour apartment in 2006 he "flipped" his designated second home to a property he had purchased in London.

Mr Hoon's expenses files disclose that before flipping, he claimed back bills for a full year's insurance, an annual British Gas service contract and a TV licence in Derbyshire. In a single year, he billed the taxpayer for three TV licences.

Parliamentary rules allow MPs to claim for only one property at a time on second-home expenses. However, these disclosures show that Mr Hoon had already claimed for services in Derbyshire covering the period when London had become his designated second home. After "flipping", he also bought a number of items in Derbyshire, including glass panes, apparently for his London home.

The latest disclosures add to growing questions over Mr Hoon's expenses claims. It has already emerged that the Transport Secretary did not pay capital gains tax when selling another London flat he owned in 2006. Mr Hoon also claimed for the cost of receiving personal tax advice. He submitted the biggest bill of any Cabinet minister for tax advice – almost £3,000.

He also spent thousands of pounds on furniture, redecorating and electoral items for his Derbyshire house shortly before "flipping" his designated second home to the London property.

The mortgage on his Derbyshire home was less than £300 a month, compared with almost £900 for the London town house. Last night, a spokesman for the Transport Secretary said: "Mr Hoon repaid the money as soon as this was drawn to his attention and although this was an inadvertent administrative error, he unreservedly apologises for the mistake."

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