MPs block bid to stop golden farewells

The Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) formally recommended last year that the payments – worth up to £64,766 – should no longer be given to MPs who choose to stand down.

Only those who suddenly needed a job after losing their seat in an election should be eligible, it said, rather than those who knew long beforehand that they would be leaving Parliament.

Had it been implemented, the proposal could have saved the taxpayer millions of pounds at the next general election, when dozens of MPs are expected to stand down following the expenses scandal.

However, in an unusual move, the Speaker’s Committee – a group of MPs including Michael Martin, the Speaker; Harriet Harman, the leader of the House; and Alan Duncan, the shadow leader of the House – rejected the recommendation.

Their decision was never publicised. It was finalised two months ago, after party leaders had been warned privately that many MPs would be embarrassed by the disclosure of their expenses’ claims.

Since The Daily Telegraph began its investigation into the expenses system, more than 15 MPs have announced that they will stand down at the next general election.

It has been predicted that many others will follow. However, to the anger of many of their constituents, all of them will be entitled to the “parachute” payment, or Resettlement Grant as it is officially called.

It is worth up to a year’s salary, depending on the MP’s length of service and age, and the first £30,000 of it is tax-free.

The rejection of the SSRB’s recommendation also means that even those MPs who have been suspended from their parties or forced to stand down over the scandal will receive the payments.

Among those who will be given the grant are Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Ben Chapman, all of whom made “phantom claims” for mortgage interest on home loans which did not exist.

They were subsequently banned from standing by the Labour Party.

However, in addition to the resettlement grant and their gold-plated final salary pension schemes, “retiring” MPs will receive other payments for up to a year before the next election.

They are entitled to a “winding up allowance” of as much as £42,068 for costs including paying off staff, many of whom are their spouses or relations.

Gordon Brown and David Cameron, the Labour and Conservative leaders, have already come under pressure from Nick Clegg, their Liberal Democrat counterpart, to scrap the parachute payments before the next election.

Mr Cameron has said that he will wait for independent recommendations, despite it now emerging that such proposals have alreadybeen made and privately rejected.

The SSRB, which publishes regular studies on Parliamentary pay, pensions and allowances and is made up of Whitehall officials, recommended an end to the payments last year.

In its January 2008 report, which was presented to Parliament, Sir John Baker, the head of the SSRB, said: “We consider the purpose of the grant is analogous to redundancy payments and we recommend that it should no longer be paid to MPs who retire or resign.”

However, minutes from a meeting held in the Speaker’s house in March 2008 and attended by the Labour MP Sir Stuart Bell, the Lib Dem Nick Harvey and the Conservative David Maclean, noted that the group disagreed with the SSRB about the resettlement grant.

“The view was expressed that the SSRB had underestimated the uncertainty of parliamentary life and the impact on Members after normal retirement age,” the minutes stated.

By June 2008, the Speaker’s Committee had decided that if MPs could only get the resettlement grant by standing again, they might deliberately stand for unwinnable seats, which would be “difficult to manage”.

By April 2009, the committee had decided to reject the SSRB proposal. The new Green Book of Parliamentary rules stated that the payments would be made “for all Members who fail to be re-elected or who do not stand at a general election”.

The resettlement grant is also available to MPs who stand down during a parliament because of ill-health. These MPs have to write to the director of the fees office setting out their situation.

MPs including Ian McCartney, Elliot Morley and Margaret Moran (all Labour) have all mentioned health problems in their resignation statements. It is not known whether any MPs have contacted the fees office. At the 2005 election, 136 MPs left the Commons and got £5.3 million, an average of 64 per cent of their salary.

Only 49 would have received the resettlement grant under the proposals.

More than 15 MPs, including the Conservatives Douglas Hogg, Julie Kirkbride and Sir Peter Viggers, have now announced that they will stand down at the next election after The Daily Telegraph published details about their expenses.

Second home for Lib Dem who was nine miles from Commons

The party's spokesman on health in the House of Lords was MP for Richmond Park until 2005 when she stepped down at the general election. Even though her constituency was just nine miles from Westminster, Lady Tonge claimed between £650 and £850 a month in mortgage interest on a flat in central London, as well as utility bills.

The peer also regularly claimed between £150 and £200 a month for food.

She no longer pays a mortgage on the £330,000 property but has rented it out since her retirement four years ago to Stephen Williams, the Liberal Democrat MP for Bristol West. He, in turn, has claimed the rent on his tax-free designated second home allowance.

Mr Williams, the shadow secretary of state for innovation, universities and skills, paid her £1,200 a month between 2005 and October 2007, when the rent increased to £1,500.

Lady Tonge, who lives in an £810,000 property in Richmond, west London, said she had bought a second home in the centre of the capital because Parliament used to sit much later in the evening.

She said: "The hours in 1997 when I became an MP were very different from now. I took a flat at Westminster because of all-night and late-night sittings. The journey to and from Westminster may not seem much in miles but it becomes much more difficult at that time of night."

Lady Tonge also defended letting her flat to another politician and said that she still owed money on the property. "In 2005 I offered my flat to one of the new MPs, I charged a rent which covered the interest on the loan but not the service charge on the flat. I have not made any profit whatsoever and I still have the overdraft that I took out to buy the flat."

Lady Tonge was replaced in her Richmond Park constituency by Susan Kramer at the last election.The peer caused a storm of protest in 2004 when she appeared to empathise with suicide bombers in Palestine. She said: "If I had to live in that situation – and I say that advisedly – I might just consider becoming one myself."

She was sacked from her post as the Liberal Democrat spokesman for children by Charles Kennedy, the party leader at the time. Lady Tonge stepped down as an MP a year after her daughter was electrocuted in an accident, saying she wanted to spend more time with her children.

SNAPSHOT

Jenny Tonge

Job: former Liberal Democrat MP for Richmond Park

Salary: £57,485 in 2004

Total second home claims

2004-05: £16,579

2005-06: £0

2006-07: N/A

2007-08: N/A

Lord Tyler claimed for mortgage, then 'sold' flat to his daughter

The peer bought the flat in Westminster for £275,000, with his wife Nicola and his daughter Sophie, in November 2001.

Lord Tyler, then Paul Tyler, MP for North Cornwall, claimed tens of thousands of pounds in mortgage interest payments in the run-up to the 2005 general election.

Documents lodged with the fees office show that Lord Tyler claimed mortgage interest payments of more than £9,200 in 2004-05.

After he stood down as an MP in 2005, he arranged for the ownership to be passed to his daughter, who took over the mortgage.

Land Registry documents show that it was finally paid off last April.

On Tuesday Lord Tyler said he transferred the flat to his daughter in June 2005 "when my retirement from the Commons was expected to mean that I would spend less nights in London".

He said Miss Tyler had paid to buy his and his wife's share of the property – but he declined to say how much.

He said: "When we transferred the flat to her in 2005 we paid off £100,000 of the mortgage and she took on responsibility for the other £100,000."

Lord Tyler added: "There has been no capital gain on this flat, and we have none of us made a profit and, as an MP, I voted for reform of the expenses system and for greater transparency."

He said the claims were "wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred" for performing his parliamentary duties, since his main home was in the constituency.

"My expenses were regularly checked with the fees office, acknowledged to be modest, 'value for money' and there was never any 'grounds for a suggestion of a misuse of public money'."

SNAPSHOT

Paul Tyler

Job: former Liberal Democrat MP for North Cornwall

Salary: £57,485 in 2004

Total second home claims

2004-05: £13,515

2005-06: £0

2006-07: £0

2007-08: £0

Lord Archy Kirkwood did up flat on expenses, then sold it cheaply to daughter

The peer, a work and pensions spokesman, used public funds to buy carpets, curtains and bathroom furniture for his Westminster flat from stores including John Lewis and Fired Earth.

He made the purchases after announcing in April 2004 that he would retire as MP for Roxburgh and Berwickshire at the general election in May 2005. During his final year in the Commons, he claimed a total of £18,806 in allowances for the flat, which he bought for £182,500 in 2001.

These included about £670 a month to pay the interest on its mortgage. He then sold it in May 2007 to his daughter Holly, 31, a journalist for Country Life magazine, for £100,000. On Tuesday he said the flat had been valued at £225,000.

Three weeks before the sale, a flat in the same building sold for £358,000.

When he made the claims, Lord Kirkwood, then Sir Archy Kirkwood, sat on the House of Commons commission which was overseeing the first publication of basic details of MPs' expenses. As the details were published in October 2004, he said that he welcomed the fact that "taxpayers can really see how their money is being spent".

However, he dismissed suggestions that voters would be shocked by the amount of money involved. "I'm not saying it's an insignificant sum, but it's pretty small beer," he said.

Between November and December 2004, Lord Kirkwood claimed more than £3,000 for carpets and flooring for his kitchen and bathroom from John Lewis. He also claimed £94 for a lavatory paper holder and tiles from Fired Earth.

In April 2004, the month he announced his intention to step down as an MP, he claimed £200 for repairs to the flat's electrics. In June 2004, he claimed £50 for fans. In July he claimed £660 for unspecified work by a contractor.

Over the following months, he returned to John Lewis to buy a £207 bathroom cupboard and mirror, curtains for £90 and lighting worth £72.

In February 2005, he claimed £145 for a clothes rail and storage devices, £78 for kitchen stools and £56 for roller blinds. He also claimed £115 for computer equipment through his office expenses two months before he retired.

Lord Kirkwood, 63, had designated as his main home a house in Selkirk where he still lives with his wife Rosemary.

He claimed more than £63,000 in House of Lords allowances last year, including £20,019 on overnight subsistence: the Lords' equivalent of second home allowances.

He claimed £11,419 in "day subsistence" allowances, £11,419 in office running costs and £9,741 in travel costs.

Lord Kirkwood, who was knighted for services to Parliament in 2003, was one of five Lib Dem MPs put forward for peerages by Charles Kennedy, the then party leader, after the 2005 election. He announced his retirement after it was decided that his seat should merge with that of Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale, which was held by Michael Moore, a fellow Lib Dem.

Lord Kirkwood said yesterday: "When I sold the flat to my daughter a professional valuation was secured on the property. It was valued at £225,000. This was declared for capital gains.

"The fuse box and wiring system was unsafe and needed to be replaced. There were some costs of relaying flooring in parts of the property."

SNAPSHOT

Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope

Job: Former Lib Dem MP for Roxburgh and Berwickshire

Salary: £57,485 in 2004

Total second home claims

2004-05: £18,806

2005-06: £372

2006-07: N/A

2007-08: N/A

You help pay for flat, then parents buy it

Dr Evan Harris sold the flat to his parents for £200,000 more than he paid for it in 1997.

Evan Harris sought permission from the fees office to increase his mortgage by £67,000 to cover a deposit he paid when buying his Westminster flat and to extend the lease, thereby enhancing the value of the property.

Dr Harris, the MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, told officials that he needed part of the enlarged mortgage to repay £27,000 which he had borrowed for the deposit from his parents, Brenda and Frank, a respected university professor.

That request was declined, but he was allowed to increase the mortgage to pay for the £40,000 cost of extending the lease. As a result, his claims for mortgage interest went up from £519 to £781 a month.

The MP's application to put the cost of remortgaging on his expenses appeared to have raised concern among officials. In a memo, a senior member of the fees office wrote: "I got the impression of a man under some pressure ... loan of money from his parents ... he needed to pay the money back to them."

After remortgaging, Dr Harris claimed the £1,050 legal fees and £881 surveyors' bill on his expenses.

Three years later, in the autumn of 2008, he sold the one-bedroom flat to his parents for £350,000, at a time when property prices in the capital had collapsed as a result of the recession. Land Registry documents show that they bought the property without taking out a mortgage.

Dr Harris sold the flat to his parents for £200,000 more than he paid for it in 1997. He then bought a new flat for £730,000 a short walk away.

The MP said yesterday that the price paid by his parents was based on an estate agent's valuation in August, shortly before the collapse of the market. Insisting that the sale abided by "best practice", he added: "It is no secret that my parents bought the flat. All my friends know this and I told the local paper last week."

The MP added that it would have "short-changed" the taxpayer not to have bought the lease because the value would have fallen.

During the two years running up to the sale, Dr Harris spent more than £6,600 of taxpayers' funds doing up the apartment. He said: "I have not identified any allowances claimed which were inappropriate. I will pass over to the taxpayer any capital gain financed by allowances when I no longer need a flat for work. This means the taxpayer is no worse off and perhaps even better off as a result of the way I have used the second home allowance.

"I am very confident that I have acted entirely appropriately in terms of claims made as a Member of Parliament."

Mr Harris said that he paid capital gains tax when he sold the flat to his parents. He added: "I have sold a second home without avoiding CGT, without benefiting a family member and without refurbishing it first."


SNAPSHOT

Evan Harris

Job: backbench Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon

Salary: £64,766

Total second home claims

2004-05: £16,547

2005-06: £21,085

2006-07: £21,269

2007-08: £23,081

Charles Kennedy claimed for mints, teddy bears and poppy wreaths on MPs' expenses

Mr Kennedy said he received regular requests for charitable donations.

Mr Kennedy submitted the £35.75 bill for the items, which paperwork suggested were to be used as "prizes", under the Incidental Expenses Provision (IEP) which is meant to cover MPs' office costs.

The Commons Fees Office paid up for the three boxes of "dark chocolate mints" at £5.95 each and the two "toffee bears" at £8.95.

Mr Kennedy said on Saturday night that the claim had been an "error" – and that the money had been repaid earlier this month.

He said he received regular requests for such charitable donations. "These I meet from my own pocket and am happy to do so," he added.

Mr Kennedy, the MP for the seat of Ross, Skye and Lochaber, also attempted to use his taxpayer-funded office costs allowance for Remembrance Sunday poppy wreaths.

He successfully claimed £18 for a poppy wreath in November 2006 – but an attempt to claim £49 for wreaths a year later was disallowed.

He said on Saturday night that the 2006 claim had – once again – already been spotted as a mistake and the money repaid this month.

Mr Kennedy, who stepped down as leader of the Liberal Democrats in 2006 after admitting he had sought professional help for a drink problem, claimed either the maximum amount permitted or close to it on his second home allowance from 2004 to 2008.

Last year, Mr Kennedy claimed a total of £174,232 for travel, home, office and staffing allowances. Yet he turned up for only 31 per cent of votes, spoke in 9 debates and asked 13 parliamentary questions.

The former Lib Dem leader's claims under the Additional Costs Allowance (ACA), mostly made up of mortgage interest payments, were for a house in South London he bought for £775,000 in 2003.

However, he also claimed thousands under his IEP, including the £198 cost of a taxi ride between Peebles and Fort William – a distance of 109 miles – after giving a speech at the Scottish Borders Manufacturers annual dinner in October 2005.

Mr Kennedy said an overnight stay for the occasion had been impossible because he had "constituency engagements" the following morning and that public money had therefore been used "appropriately."

The following month he claimed the cost of redirecting mail from his previous address in London to his current home – which he insisted on Saturday night was "legitimate"

The Fees Office paid the £34.90 after Mr Kennedy, acknowledging that it was an "unusual request", said he received post of a "sensitive and confidential nature....due to the nature of my work.".

In February 2005, under the IEP, he submitted a bill to himself from "the Office of the Leader of the Liberal Democrats" for research services at £5,000.

In February 2006 he submitted a similar bill, this time for £5,200, and both were paid in full by the Fees Office rather than by Liberal Democrat party funds.

Mr Kennedy said: "A limited amount of additional staff time in the Leader's office was required to assist with constituency-only matters.

"This was always kept separate from anything to do with party political activities and therefore quite properly recorded and reimbursed as such."

Mr Kennedy succeeded Paddy Ashdown as Lib Dem leader in 1999, taking the party through two general elections. After he stepped down in 2006 he was succeeded by Sir Menzies Campbell.

When Sir Menzies resigned, in turn, in 2007, Mr Kennedy said that it was "highly unlikely" that he would try to return as leader, but did not rule it out completely.

Rt Hon Charles Kennedy

Job: Liberal Democrat MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber

Salary: £64,766

Total second home claims

2004-05: £20,902

2005-06: £20,249

2006-07: £22,110

2007-08: £21,287

Total expenses

2007-08: £174,232

Rate of attendance

at votes: 31 per cent.

Best Excuse's!

Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat leader, who claimed for gardening:

“The garden came with the house. It was in a totally derelict state and had not been touched in 30 years... it was a real eyesore for the neighbours. It is quite right, since I am not there during the week, it seems to me, that I use the allowance available to me, to make sure that it is in good basic maintained order, which it is now.”

Best Excuse's!

Lembit Opik, Liberal Democrat MP, who was refused a claim for a television:

“If I think something is good enough value for me to spend my own money on... I think it would be reasonable for me to claim it. The technology was very expensive in 2005. Obviously I thought it was worth it."

Best Excuse's!

Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, who claimed for the cost of a trouser press which was bought at his main London home:

"The trouser press was taken to my Eastleigh home for use before constituency events, but I have repaid the cost of £119 as my aim on second home claims has always been to avoid controversy.”

Best Excuse's!

Andrew George, Liberal Democrat MP, who claimed for a flat which his daughter stayed in:

"A third of the flat's cost was paid directly by me without taxpayer support. Is The Telegraph suggesting that my family should not be able to visit me in London?"

Liberal Democrat MP Malcolm Bruce claimed running costs for two homes

Malcolm Bruce, the president of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, was able to make the claims because his wife Rosemary works as his office manager and diary secretary from their main home on Deeside, north-east Scotland.

Normally MPs can only claim expenses for household bills at their second homes, and must pay their own way at their main residence.

However, because Mr Bruce told the Commons fees office that his wife was working from home, he was able to claim for his household bills in Scotland under the Incidental Expenditure Provision (IEP), which is intended to cover office costs.

Between April, 2006, and March, 2008, he was paid a total of nearly £3,100 towards the cost of electricity, heating and cleaning at his main home in the village of Torphins, just outside his constituency of Gordon. From 2005 to 2008, he received a total of £61,186 from the additional costs allowance (ACA) for his second home in London.

The Torphins claim was made despite Mr Bruce having a constituency office in Inverurie, about a 30-minute drive away, also funded by the taxpayer. The ACA claim included regular monthly spending of more than £300 on food, close to the maximum of £400. In one month, August, 2005, he successfully claimed £451 for food.

The public also funded more than £3,200-worth of repairs to the conservatory and guttering at the London flat, as well as work to “level the bath”. A complete rewiring of the flat was carried out after a lightbulb “exploded” at a cost of £8,757 without any other estimates being sought because of the “need to make the electrics safe urgently”, Mr Bruce wrote on his expenses form.

Mrs Bruce has worked for her husband since November, 1999, from their home in Torphins.

In May 2006, in a letter to the Commons’ department of finance and administration (DFA) about his wife’s work and the Torphins house, Mr Bruce wrote: “Apart from the initial set up costs and the telephone bills (for a new line for work purposes only), I have never made a claim to the IEP for the costs of her working from home. Previously I have been given an allowance on my tax return for this purpose.

“My accountant has suggested that it would be better to claim back the costs directly from the IEP. Please find detailed below the amount of electricity and oil used – as one sixth of the total annual bill and the cleaning bill, which amounts to one eighth of the total bill.

“Claim for the costs of my wife working from home for the financial year 2005-2006: heating (oil) £350, electricity £400, cleaning £450. I would be grateful if the £1,200 could be paid directly into my bank account.”

Further claims in relation to Mrs Bruce working from home – as manager of all her husband’s staff and offices – were made for £1,012 in 2006/07 and £886 in 2007/08.

Yesterday Mr Bruce said: “I have no regrets...Claims for electricity, heating and cleaning are the reimbursements of costs actually and necessarily incurred because my wife works from home. The benefits of my wife working from home are flexibility, time efficiency and lower costs. We have a young family and home-working enables my wife to deliver them to school when I am away in London and be at her desk earlier than if she commuted to Inverurie, which is 22 miles away.”

He refused to disclose Mrs Bruce’s salary, citing data protection legislation. Mr Bruce said work on the bath in the London flat was “entirely necessary” as a leak was “causing the floor to lift and seeping into the next door property”.

Repairs to the conservatory – “an old aluminium structure” – and guttering were justified as water had been leaking into their flat and a neighbour’s. The rewiring work had been carried out quickly “to avoid the risk of fire or potentially fatal electric shocks”.

“I have borrowed money from my bank to provide a second home and claimed the part costs of this as provided for by Parliament wholly exclusively and necessarily for that purpose,” Mr Bruce said.

“When I was first elected, the office costs allowance was sufficient for only one member of staff and incidental expenses. My constituency office and part-time secretary were subsidised by myself and my local party.

“I am only claiming the costs I now incur for which the IEP and ACA were properly provided.”

Would-be Speaker Sir Alan Beith and his wife claimed £177,000

The former Liberal Democrat deputy leader, who is his party's longest-serving MP, married his second wife, the former Lib Dem MP for Christchurch, in 2001

Sir Alan, the Liberal Democrat MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed, bills the taxpayer for rent, food and cleaning at his flat in the Dolphin Square complex near Westminster. At the same time, Lady Maddock has claimed an average of £10,000 per year in “overnight” allowances.

Couples who both claim parliamentary expenses have now been told that only one of them can submit second homes claims, under a raft of interim rule changes announced by the outgoing Speaker, Michael Martin, this week.

The Beiths insisted yesterday that they had stayed within the letter and the spirit of the rules by claiming less than the maximum allowable sum.

Lady Maddock said she only ever claimed half of what she was entitled to, while Sir Alan claimed only half the couple’s rent, although his overall second homes claims amount to far more than 50 per cent of the limit.

Sir Alan also claimed £6,298 for food between 2005 and 2008 and £5,050 for a cleaner in the same period, as well as recovering £5,457 from the public purse for a John Lewis kitchen and £219 for an air conditioning unit.

Having declared himself as a candidate for the Speaker’s chair this week, saying he was “willing to take on the task of leading reform”, Sir Alan was installed as 6-1 second favourite to win next month’s secret ballot of MPs.

The former Liberal Democrat deputy leader, who is his party’s longest-serving MP, married his second wife, the former Lib Dem MP for Christchurch, in 2001. Since then they have rented their London flat, which Sir Alan has designated as his second home. Between 2001 and 2008, Sir Alan, 66, claimed a total of £117,750 in second home allowances.

In 2006-07 he claimed the maximum allowable amount of £22,110, which included the cost of the new kitchen from John Lewis.

In the same year, Lady Maddock claimed £8,560 for “overnight subsistence” on her House of Lords expenses, as well as claiming £9,005 in daily attendance allowances. In total, Lady Maddock claimed £60,002 in overnight allowances between 2001 and 2008, meaning the couple claimed £177,752 between them.

Lady Maddock insisted that she and her husband had done everything possible to ensure they stayed within the spirit of the rules on expenses.

She said: “We have tried to claim half and half. I have always claimed half of what I could claim for and Alan only claims for half the rent. It isn’t an exact science.

“We tried to solve the rent issue by claiming for half in a system that isn’t perfect.

“We could have sat down and we could have worked out the half much more accurately perhaps, but we did our best.

“We have always been in favour of everything being out in the open.”

Sir Alan, who was knighted last year, has chaired several

parliamentary committees and made an unsuccessful bid for the leadership of his party in 1988, when he was beaten by Paddy Ashdown.

As well as his parliamentary salary of £64,766 he earns between £15,000 and £20,000 as a consultant to the Bourne Leisure Group, which operates holiday parks.

Sir Alan said he had always “sought value for money” in his expenditure but would pay back money if it was deemed inappropriate by “external scrutiny”.

Sir Alan Beith

Job: backbench

Lib Dem MP

Salary: £64,766

Total second home claims

2004-05: £12,595

2005-06: £15,674

2006-07: £22,110

2007-08: £17,686

Lib Dem election chief Lord Rennard quits 'for family reasons’

The peer, a key electoral strategist, announced he would be stepping down in the autumn.

Lord Rennard has been facing criticism over his expenses claims, but a party spokesman insisted there was no link to his departure.

In a letter to Lib Dem members, Lord Rennard said he had discussed the move with Nick Clegg, the party leader, “some time ago”. “I want to be able to work more flexibly in future whilst of course continuing to help our party advance,” he wrote.

“I believe that I will be better able to do so without the administrative burdens of being chief executive.”

The peer has been criticised for claiming more than £40,000 for running a second home, despite owning an apartment less than two miles from Westminster.

Lord Rennard has insisted that his claims were cleared with the House authorities.

Cleggie's Garden!

Nick Clegg claimed for a small garden wall, which we can't identify in the picture, and repair of the path which snakes alongside his lawn

Jo Swinson claimed for tooth flosser, eyeliner and 29p dusters

Jo Swinsonss records show that she submitted receipts for items ranging in price from 29p to £544.90

Miss Swinson, a Liberal Democrat who was 25 when she was elected MP for Dunbartonshire East in 2005, denied claiming for cosmetics but defended the use of taxpayer-funded expenses to pay for dozens of other everyday items.

At one point, she submitted a Tesco receipt for £22.67 that appeared to show that the MP or an aide went to the trouble of putting an asterisk next to three items, totalling £5.75, for which she intended to claim — a £1.75 chopping board, a “food saver” for £1.50 and a £2.50 sieve.

An Asda receipt included a bottle of Mr Sheen cleaner costing 78p and a £1.19 window cleaner. She also claimed for a hair dryer and £16 lavatory roll holder, along with a £14.10 invoice to have a spare key cut for her cleaner.

Public concern over MPs’ expenses has focused on the petty nature of some of the claims submitted on second home allowances, as well as the more extravagant spending of taxpayers’ money.

Miss Swinson’s records show that she submitted receipts for items ranging in price from a packet of dusters for 29p to a television costing £544.90.

Known in Westminster for the attention she pays to her appearance, Miss Swinson’s receipts contain a number of items relating to her personal care. They included a “tooth flosser” costing £19.10, which the Commons fees office rejected, along with a set of “toothbrush refills”.

A few months previously, however, and in an apparent breach of the rules that prevented claims for personal items, she was reimbursed for an electric toothbrush and hairdryer.

Also among her receipts was a £27.94 bill from Boots, which included a £5 eyeliner, a lip liner for the same price, and a £12.00 “R&M Eye Kit”.

Contacted by the Telegraph, Miss Swinson said she had not claimed for the eyeliner, suggesting that it featured on a receipt that included other items for which she did seek repayment. No items other than cosmetics appeared on the receipt in question — it seemed to be the second of two pages, the first of which is missing.

Asked why she had regularly used the additional costs allowance, which MPs may used to fund a second home, to claim for low-cost, everyday items, Miss Swinson said: “None of these items would have been necessary for me to buy were I not living away from home for half of the week.

“Most of these were approved and the costs reimbursed, a couple were not and I accepted this.

“As a new MP, my understanding was that the ACA reimbursed the costs of setting up a place to stay in London, including duplicates of the various kitchen and bathroom items that I use in my main home.

“The receipt for the Mr Sheen and dusters was with the invoices from my cleaner submitted on Oct 13 2005. However, I directly reimbursed my cleaner for these items and did not claim for them.

“I am at work when she cleans my flat, so it was necessary to provide her with a key in order to get in. A television is necessary in order to follow programming relevant to my job.”

Miss Swinson said she claimed less than the maximum food allowance of £400 a month — usually about £10 for each day she attended Parliament.

Jo Swinson

Job: backbench Lib Dem MP

Salary: £64,766

Total second home claims

2004-05: £0

2005-06: £18,383

2006-07: £18,590

2007-08: £23,083

Phil Willis spent thousands on a flat where his daughter now lives

Mr Willis said his daughter had never been a 'permanent resident' in the flat

Mr Willis, who represents Harrogate and Knaresborough, claimed on his expenses for the full interest costs of the home loan at his London flat as well as getting it rewired and repainted.

Phil Willis's daughter Rachel Willis, an actress and model

He bought a flat next door and his former flat is now occupied solely by his daughter Rachel, a former model who appeared in a series of television adverts for the internet service provider AOL. Her father has since claimed more than £2,500 in stamp duty and fees and £3,000 on further improvements on the new flat which he has designated his second home, the deeds for are held jointly between himself and his daughter. Mr Willis’s main home is near his constituency and he initially nominated as his second home a basement flat in south London that he bought a decade ago.

Since 2004-05 he has charged taxpayers £12,653 for mortgage interest payments on the property, as well as £1,275 for a new electrical system and £1,036 for drain clearing. He put in a £2,150 bill for decoration less than two weeks after he was returned to Parliament in 2005. In April 2007, he bought the neighbouring basement flat for £215,000, and designated it as his second home - claiming £2,713.68 in stamp duty and legal fees. His mortgage interest claims more than doubled to £806.65.

His daughter, who had been staying at the first flat intermittently, became its sole occupant.

Mr Willis then claimed for a £1,700 decoration bill and charged £1,188.65 for a “rather modest” bathroom suite for the new flat.

Land Registry documents show Mr Willis and his wife, Heather, are still the registered owners of the first flat. This means public money has been spent on a flat now inhabited by the MP’s daughter, and on a property in which she has a joint interest. Rules state that members cannot claim for costs that benefit anyone other than themselves.

Mr Willis on Tuesday night said his daughter had never been a “permanent resident” in the flat. He also said the two flats were registered jointly with his wife and daughter respectively, because he had suffered a stroke, and was concerned for his health. He said: “At no time have I knowingly made claims that attempted to abuse the Additional Costs Allowance. I have publicly supported Nick Clegg’s campaign that any capital gain made as a direct result of taxpayers’ money should be returned to the fees office on sale of the property, which in my case, means for both flats 1 and 2.”



Phil Willis

Job: backbench Lib-Dem MP

Salary: £64,766

Total second home claims

2004-05: £17,058

2005-06: £18,527

2006-07: £22,110

2007-08: £22,905

Nick Clegg

Nick Clegg: "Do I think this was a train crash waiting to happen? Yes, clearly it was. What we are seeing now is the unravelling of a system that thrived in the shadows"

When: May 13

Andrew George

Andrew George: "This story's main allegation appears to be that I have a London flat that is sometimes visited by my daughter, who lives elsewhere in London."

When: May 13

Chris Huhne

Chris Huhne: “My aim on second home claims has always been to avoid controversy, which is why they are 17 per cent of the allowable maximum and rank me as 580th out of the 620 MPs entitled to claim the allowance.”

When: May 12

Lembit Opik

Lembit Opik: "I may have been within the rules. It's equivocal. I asked them about it (claiming back a £40 court summons) and they said they would have to look into it. The one thing they (the Telegraph) have been trying to get me to pay back may not have been wrong."

He said he had written a cheque anyway "rather than waste the Fees Office's time".

When: May 13