David Cameron today finds the Conservative party in the firing line over the highly charged issue of MPs' expenses and allowances, as embarrassing details about the claims of a series of shadow cabinet ministers are leaked.
As a former deputy speaker of the Commons warned that a general election may have to be held to resolve the expenses crisis, shadow ministers tonight defended claims which appear to show that Tory MPs have followed Labour in maximising their benefits.
The Daily Telegraph, which has faced criticism for focusing on Labour MPs in the three days since it started publishing leaked details about parliamentary expenses, today shifts its attention to the shadow cabinet. The paper claims that:
• One shadow minister had piping repaired that stretches under the tennis court at his country house. The Tories said the piping happened to pass under the court, but had nothing to do with it.
• A senior member of the shadow cabinet claimed for 25 light bulbs at his west London home.
• A shadow minister used the £24,006 additional costs allowance, used to subsidise MPs' second homes, to upgrade a property just before selling it.
• A Tory frontbencher claimed thousands of pounds for the upkeep of his garden.
Tory sources said last night that the party would be embarrassed by some of the disclosures, but no resignations were expected because the rules had not been broken. "We have a perception problem," one source said.
The focus on the Tories is likely to turn the expenses leaks into a wider crisis for the political classes. Downing Street is angry that the Telegraph has focused on Labour in the first three days of its series.
The wider impact was highlighted by Lord Naseby, a former Commons deputy speaker, who said that the leaks were so damaging that parliament may have to be dissolved. "It's dreadful. It is quite awful," the Tory peer told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend. "I think frankly, if this runs and runs, then parliament should be dissolved, I think they have to start again. The Great British public has lost their confidence and I think that it is extremely serious. And if it is that serious then there is only one way of dealing with it, that is to dissolve parliament."
His remarks came as Hazel Blears, the communities secretary, faced a fight for her political life after apparently making contradictory declarations about a publicly subsidised flat to avoid a £18,000 tax bill. Gordon Brown, who gave Blears a dressing down after she accused the government last week of a "lamentable" failure to communicate, is planning to reshuffle his cabinet after what is expected to be a poor performance by Labour in the European elections next month. Senior Labour figures are now privately saying that Blears's position is vulnerable.
Blears appeared to have avoided paying capital gains tax when she sold a flat in Kennington, south London, in August 2004 for £200,000, making a profit of £45,000. To avoid paying tax of about £18,000 on the profit, she would have had to declare the flat to the Inland Revenue as her main residence. But in April 2004 she designated the Kennington flat as her second home to the Commons authorities. This allowed her to claim mortgage interest payments on it of £850 a month.
Blears insisted yesterday she had done nothing wrong. Standing outside her home in Salford, as she prepared to drive off with her husband on his motorbike, she said: "I have complied with the rules of the house, the rules of the Inland Revenue, and that's the situation as it is. But I understand how strongly the public feel about it and they hate all of this and that means we have got to get it sorted out as quickly as possible."
Her performance, seen in Labour circles as a low in the expenses saga, illustrated a wider problem of how politicians are struggling to defend themselves.
Blears changed the status of her home in 2004 when rules which meant that ministers had to declare their London homes as their main residence were changed. Until then rent and mortgage payments on these properties had to be paid from ministers' own pockets. Had Blears not declared her Kennington flat to the Inland Revenue as her main property she would have paid tax on a flat funded from her own pocket for three years from her appointment as a minister in 2001 until just four months before she sold it. MPs will make clear the need for change when they tomorrow agree to a tougher system to audit their expenses. Sir Stuart Bell, the veteran Labour member of the Commons Commission, said: "In all probability the commission will approve a special specific audit unit, hived off from the fees office, independent of the fees office, which will verify in future every claim that's made by any MP."
Under the new system, officials who approve MPs' claims will be overseen by senior officials who will be formally charged with advising on whether claims are valid. A separate audit office in the Commons will conduct statistical analysis to identify MPs who over-claim. Since 1 April this year the National Audit Office has been auditing MPs after they were placed on the same level as the rest of the public sector.
The internal and external auditing marks a major change. Until now MPs' expenses have only been examined individually, with no overall oversight. By conducting a statistical analysis, the auditors are meant to identify MPs who claim above average amounts.
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