Official complaint into McNulty home
Monday, 23 March 2009 7:58 PM
By politics.co.uk staff
The Tories have launched an official complaint into emplyment minister Tony McNulty's second home allowance.
A full-scale inquiry into the system of MPs' expenses may be conducted by the Committee on Standards in Public Life following the scandal.
Mr McNulty, who was reported over the weekend as claiming expenses on a second home just eight miles from his main home, has said the system should be looked into, in a curious reaction to the latest row.
Mr McNulty stopped claiming the second home allowance in January, mostly because the drop in interest rates had allowed him to pay the mortgage on his salary.
Mr McNulty's spokesman said the MP is "completely compliant with all the regulations around the allowances for second homes".
"There is absolutely nothing irregular in Tony's situation," he added.
Living just outside the London zone which prevents MPs from claiming second home allowance, it does not appear that the minister has technically broken any rules.
But the fact he claimed taxpayers' money for a home in which his parents lived, and which lies so close to his normal home, has prompted strong criticism.
"The minister can't seem to get his story straight. He admits that the arrangement looks odd and that he stopped it in January, but won't repay the £60,000 he took from taxpayers to fund it," said Tory MP Greg Hands, who registered the complaint against the emplyment minister today.
"He says that he uses the house for constituency work but his office is just round the corner. Now he says that MPs in the south-east shouldn't be claiming housing allowances when he voted against a similar proposal less than a year ago.
"Once again, the position of one of Gordon Brown's ministers looks indefensible. It clearly needs to be investigated."
Speaking on the Today programme, shadow Commons leader Alan Duncan joined in the criticism.
"The allowance is for a second home, it is not for a constituency office," he said.
"There he is brazenly trying to bat this away by saying 'Oh well, the system is not very good but I didn't do anything wrong'. There are some serious questions that still to be answered."
The question of whether Mr McNulty ever spends the night at the house is slowly taking centre-stage, with his failure to specify this leading the Tories to write the letter to John Lyon, parliamentary commissioner for standards, calling for more action.
Mr McNulty did confirm he slept there once or twice a week when he first entered parliament - usually on weekends. He now uses the house as a base while working in the constituency.
A new inquiry into the expenses and allowances system has not yet been confirmed but media reports estimate that it could begin in the autumn, and expand to consider MPs' pay and office expenditure.
Mr McNulty's difficulties follow a problematic few weeks for home secretary Jacqui Smith, who claimed £116,000 in expenses for a family home in the West Midlands while declaring her sister's home in London to be her main residence.
While Commons authorities approved the actions and the parliamentary standards watchdog decided against an investigation, the case raised questions about the ethics of the current system.
Simon Hughes, Liberal Democrat MP for North Southwark and Bermondsey, said: "There ought to be a straightforward 'no second home' claim for people who are in London at all, unless they can show that getting home at a reasonable time isn't practical.
"Then they need to show that what they have is a second home... not their family home, not their mum's home."
Under current rules, the Additional Costs Allowance of up to £24,000 a year goes to MPs from outside central London so they are able to do constituency work while also attending parliament.
A new, tighter system of expenses with comes into force on April 1st.
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