Horsham MP Francis Maude was criticised by a Channel Four documentary this week, investigating how MPs have responded to the 2009 expenses scandal.
While making it clear that he had kept within the new rules, Monday night’s Dispatches suggested that Mr Maude had breached the pledge made by David Cameron when he was leader of the opposition.
A clip from a pre-election broadcast, played during the programme, showed Mr Cameron saying: “... members of the Shadow Cabinet, like Francis Maude, will not in future claim any money for their second homes.”
Mr Maude has two properties near Westminster - one was bought with cash while the other, a larger one close by, has been mortgaged at the taxpayers’ expense since 2007.
Changes to the rules, brought in following the expenses scandal, prevent MPs claiming for mortgage payments but allow them to have council tax and bills covered - the programme said Mr Maude had claimed more than £16,000 in council tax and utility bills on that second home.
MPs’ expenses have been regulated by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) since May 2010.
Schedule 1 of the scheme, titled ‘Fundamental Principles’, says: “Members of Parliament have the right to be reimbursed for unavoidable costs where they are incurred wholly, exclusively, and necessarily in the performance of their parliamentary duties, but not otherwise.”
Schedule 2 describes the expenses which an MP may claim for.
It says: “Accommodation: Payable only to non-London area MPs to cover expenses incurred for overnight accommodation necessary for the performance of an MP’s parliamentary duties.
“Claims may be made for rental payments and associated expenses such as utility bills, up to an annual limit of £19,900 of which a maximum of £17,400 may be claimed for rental payments.
“Alternatively MPs may claim for hotel accommodation up to a maximum of £130 per night in the London area and £105 elsewhere.”
MPs’ claims have fallen since the expenses scandal, but only from £90.7m to £89m.
A spokesman for Francis Maude told the County Times: “In 2009-2010 Sir Thomas Legg conducted an in-depth review of all MPs’ claims. He had access to all the facts, and reviewed all claims to ensure that they met not just the letter but also the spirit of the rules. Many MPs were ordered to make repayments even though they had complied with the letter of the rules. Francis Maude was not among them. Indeed he was one of the MPs found by Sir Thomas to have ‘no issues’.
“In his statement of May 2009 Francis pledged that he would no longer claim for his second home in London until Sir Christopher Kelly’s reforms were in place, a process likely to take 12 months. He kept that promise. ”