Rosie Winterton also claimed expenses for gardening and decorating at her flat.Miss Winterton’s claims, which are close to the maximum allowance for second homes, will raise concerns that some MPs spend large sums of taxpayers’ money on improving properties.
The Labour MP claimed £4,690 for “soundproofing of bedroom wall and redecoration to bedroom, bathroom, living room, kitchen, staircase” in February 2007.
The payment was reduced to £3,800 by the fees office after it refused to pay for soundproofing with acoustic felt and “acoustic mineral wool slabs”.
The labour and materials for the soundproofing cost £890.
Three months later Miss Winterton claimed £2,574 for installing a new television aerial and work on the front and back of the house.
Another claim for £550 at the same time repaired a leak from a lavatory, which caused “damp stains” on the ceiling of the room below.
Miss Winterton, 50, is a close ally of John Prescott, the former deputy prime minister. She has known Mr Prescott since she was a student and began her political career working in his Hull constituency office.
She was Mr Prescott’s head of office between 1994 and 1997.
Mr Prescott supported her selection for the safe seat of Doncaster Central and Miss Winterton was elected to Parliament in 1997. She was promoted to the Government in 2001.
Miss Winterton bought the flat in a tree-lined cul-de-sac in south London for £315,000 in 2003. The terrace house is now believed to be worth at least £380,000. In 2005, she submitted a bill from a garden landscaping firm for £3,000. The fees office withheld the payment on the grounds that it “may be considered excessive”.
The landscape gardener’s invoice included decking, 38 bags of gravel and deluxe trellis. “Please observe the quality of the trellis,” wrote the gardener. The fees office agreed to pay £1,700 after correspondence with the MP.
Other claims included £298 for linen and curtains from House of Fraser and £96 for towels, as well as £750 a month for mortgage interest. Last year, Miss Winterton also claimed £1,100 for a burglar alarm. Over four years, she claimed £86,277. “All my reimbursed claims were either for replacement items or for repairs and maintenance work,” said Miss Winterton.
“The claims for the particular items about which you asked were discussed with the fees office and they decided which parts of the invoices should be reimbursed. However, it is obvious that we do need a new system which I support.”
As health minister, she was in charge of introducing the NHS dental contract in 2006. Last year, the House of Commons health select committee found that instead of improving access to NHS dentistry the reforms have made it worse.
Hundreds of dentists have left the NHS after refusing to sign up to the contract and in the two years after the contract was introduced, 900,000 fewer people saw an NHS dentist than in the last two years of the previous system.
Rosie Winterton
Job: Minister for Work and Pensions
Salary: £104,050
Total second home claims
2004-05: £20,902
2005-06: £21,634
2006-07: £22,110
2007-08: £21,631
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