EIGHTY MPs, far more than expected, have lodged appeals to demands by a House of Commons inquiry that they repay up to £1 million (€1.13 million) in expenses, or else face cuts in future payments.
Prime minister Gordon Brown appointed Thomas Legg to inquire into five years of expenses claims that had been cleared by House of Commons authorities.
However, Sir Thomas caused fury among MPs when he decided to set his own limits for some expenses, including gardening and cleaning, and directed 200 MPs to repay the difference.
The decision of four in 10 MPs to challenge Sir Thomas’s directions will infuriate party leaders, including Mr Brown, who had told their MPs to accept the judgment.
The 80 MPs will now make their appeals to Paul Kennedy, a retired appeal court judge, before December 23rd, and he will issue a final ruling by the end of January that supposedly cannot be appealed.
Following Sir Paul’s verdict, MPs will have to pay up or have the money deducted from future expense claims – or from severance payments, in the case of those retiring next year. However, there were suggestions in the Commons last night that some MPs may go to court.
Conservative MP for Essex North, Bernard Jenkin, who faces an order to pay back £63,250 for expenses claimed on a property rented from his sister-in-law, said he was never told that the rules had changed in 2006.
However, fellow Conservative MP for Thanet North, Roger Gale accused Sir Thomas of being “dishonest” because, he said, the retired civil servant was “still knowingly releasing false information” about his claims for a £2,100 mobile phone bill and £400 in rent.
Last night, Mr Gale said that the House of Commons fees office had approved of the rental agreement, but he added that he would repay the money if Sir Paul confirms Sir Thomas’s ruling.
He said Sir Thomas had ignored his explanations for the charges: “Am I angry? Yes, I am. My reputation matters to me. I have been doing this job for 27 years. It has cost us well over a quarter of a million pounds out of our own pocket,” he said last night.
However, the judgment made by Sir Paul in the case of Liberal Democrat Taunton MP, Jeremy Browne, who has been told to repay £17,894, may prove to be the most interesting.
He became an MP in 2005 and increased the mortgage he had on a flat he already owned in London from £130,000 to £190,000 to help raise a deposit to purchase a home in his constituency.
He then designated the London property as his second home and claimed expenses for mortgage interest payments. However, Sir Thomas said he should not have done so on the extra mortgage that was taken out.
Mr Browne, Sir Thomas said, had broken the rules because MPs are not allowed to claim expenses for “interest on any additional mortgages, advances or loans secured on the same property”.
However, the Liberal Democrat MP said he could have sold the London property and bought a replacement for a higher price, or claimed for the full interest on his Taunton property “but either option would have cost the taxpayer more”.