More pay backs from UK Conservative MPs
Conservative members of Parliament are to pay back a further £125,000 in expenses claims deemed excessive by an internal party committee. The repayment comes on top of £130,000 already being reimbursed by 60 Tory MPs, the party said yesterday as it...
Conservative members of Parliament are to pay back a further £125,000 in expenses claims deemed excessive by an internal party committee. The repayment comes on top of £130,000 already being reimbursed by 60 Tory MPs, the party said yesterday as it sought to draw a line under the damaging expenses scandal.
Party leader David Cameron hopes the findings will distance the Conservatives from the allowances row which has rocked Parliament and prompted many MPs to announce they will stand down at the next election.
The Tories said their scrutiny panel had now examined all but six of their 192 MPs.
Among the 41 MPs making fresh repayments are Gosport MP Peter Viggers, notorious for his rejected claim for a floating duck house, who will send back £10,000 for gardening costs. A total of nine Tory MPs, including former ministers John Redwood and Michael Ancram, will also no longer claim second home allowances worth £109,000 in total, the party added.
"This is just one step, of many, that needs to be taken to restore both some trust and some faith in the political system," said Mr Cameron.
"Unlike Labour and the Lib Dems, we have not just contented ourselves by accepting the tired old justification that something is 'within the rules'.
"Instead, we have gone beyond the letter of the rules... and sought to agree, together, claims which while we believe them to have been properly made, could be regarded as disproportionate."