LAGAN VALLEY MP and junior Stormont minister Jeffrey Donaldson has apologised and paid back more than £550 to the House of Commons authorities for the cost of watching pay-to-view films while staying in London hotels.
The charges go back to 2004 and 2005 when Mr Donaldson stayed in hotels while engaged in House of Commons work.
His hotel expenses claims included charges for watching 68 pay-to-view films, the Daily Telegraphreported as part of its continuing coverage of MPs' expenses.
Mr Donaldson said yesterday that to relax he often watched popular box office films on TV when he returned to his hotel from working at Westminster. Films he viewed would have included Star Wars, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
For security reasons he did not have an opportunity at the time to go to the cinema and used pay-to-view films instead.
He acknowledged that he was wrong to claim for the films as part of his hotel expenses, and said he had repaid the money to the Westminster fees office.
“I recognise that the items for room service charges should have been separated out from the hotel bills and I should have paid those myself,” he said.
“It was simply a question of submitting the bill in its entirety and it was paid by the fees office and that should not have happened.”
Mr Donaldson told the BBC: “At night when you come home from a hard day’s work at the office as it were, it is nice to be able to relax and watch a film on the TV and that’s really all this was.”
His party leader and Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson said: “Everybody recognises that when we are dealing with taxpayers’ money that there are certain uses which are not consistent with the use of taxpayers’ money.
“Jeffrey has been asked to repay. As I understand it, if he has not done it, he certainly does intend to and I think that is the appropriate action for him to take.” – (additional reporting PA)
