Another thieving politician caught?

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Source: Telegraph

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Miller could make £1million on second home

The Cabinet minister at the centre of an expenses row about her property could be sitting on a £1million profit on its value, it has emerged.

Maria Miller, the culture secretary, is being investigated for claiming £90,000 in taxpayer-funded allowances for a home where her parents also lived.

The minister and her husband Iain bought the large detached house in Wimbledon, south London for just £234,000 in 1995.

She has charged the taxpayer for mortgage repayments and various other expenses since she became an MP in 2005, designating it her second home, with her main home a rented property in her Basingstoke constituency.

It is now worth an estimated £1.27million, according to the property website Zoopla.

Its value has surged by £220,701 in just one year, adding a fifth to its value, the website estimates, and if rented out it would fetch around £4,700 a month.

The rules state that second homes must be ‘exclusively’ for the use of MPs.

Mrs Miller is being investigated for her claims from 2005 to 2009 by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, who has sent a 100-page report into her conduct to MPs.

In it, the Commissioner Kathryn Hudson is understood to have concluded that for at least part of the four years Mrs Miller should not have claimed second home costs for her London home, where it understood her family live.

But the prime minister is said to be keen for her to stay in post given she is one of just four women in his cabinet.

If she were to sell the home, Mrs Miller would be entitled to keep the £1million profit under parliamentary rules.

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Absolutely disgusting.

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David Cameron under pressure to sack Maria Miller over expenses claims



Maria Miller is facing a growing battle to keep her Cabinet job after she "unreservedly" apologised for her "attitude" during an inquiry into her expenses claims.

In a 31 second statement in the Commons, Mrs Miller claimed the matter is now at “an end” despite the standards watchdog censuring her following an investigation her use of the taxpayer-funded second home allowance.

David Cameron has insisted that Mrs Miller's job is safe despite her being accused of providing "incomplete documentation and fragmentary information" to the inquiry.

However, the Prime Minister is sure to come under growing pressure to reconsider his decision as criticism of Mrs Miller mounts.

John Mann, the Labour MP for Bassetlaw, who made an official complaint about Mrs Miller, called for her resignation.

The MPs ordered Mrs Miller to pay back £5,800 and also make an apology to MPs.

In an orchestrated show of support for Mrs Miller in the Commons, Conservative MPs were ordered to flank her on the backbenches ahead of her statement.

“I wish to make a personal statement in relation to today’s report,” Mrs Miller told MPs. “The report resulted from an allegation made by [John Mann, the Labour MP for Bassetlaw] The committee has dismissed his allegation.

“The committee has recommended that I apologise to the House for my attitude to the commissioner’s inquiries and I of course unreservedly apologise. I fully accept the recommendations of the committee and thank them for bringing this matter to an end.”

The Culture Secretary was heavily criticised by the cross-party Standards Committee for failing to co-operate fully with a 15-month probe into her claims.

However, she was found not to have broken rules by moving her parents into her taxpayer-funded second home.

The report states: "We have already recommended that Mrs Miller repay the £5,800 which she has identified as an overclaim. She should also apologise by personal statement on the floor of the House for her attitude to the Commissioner's inquiries."

he MPs accepted accepted Mrs Miller's "contention that her overclaim in 2008-09 was inadvertent and caused by the rapid reduction in interest rates".

"The main thrust of the original complaint, namely that Mrs Miller was providing an immediate benefit from public funds to her parents, has not been upheld," the report said. "The Commissioner accepts, and the Committee agrees, that the designation of the main home was finely balanced. As we have set out, most of Mrs Miller's mortgage claims were justified."

It goes on to say that she “breached” the code of conduct by her “attitude” to the inquiry.

“If the Commissioner had been able swiftly to establish the facts relating to Mrs Miller's mortgages, and had been able to gather the documentation which would have allowed her (and has allowed us) to judge the relationship between the changes in bank base rate and the interest charged to Mrs Miller, this might have been a relatively minor matter. As we have set out, Mrs Miller has also breached the current Code of Conduct by her attitude to this inquiry. That is more serious.”

The over-payment is understood to have occurred because Mrs Miller did not adjust her claims for mortgage downwards as interest rates fell.

Parliamentary authorities first launched an inquiry into Mrs Miller's claims more than a year ago following an investigation by The Telegraph.

She was exposed after claiming more than £90,000 over four years for a second home where her parents lived in South London - rather than submitting claims for cottages she rented in her Basingstoke constituency.

Mrs Miller spoke with the Prime Minister by phone this morning, Mr Cameron's official spokesman said.

The spokesman repeatedly declined to say whether she apologised personally to Mr Cameron or offered her resignation.

He said: "The matter does not arise because she is accepting the committee's report in full, she will apologise to the House. That is absolutely the right thing to do and the Prime Minister is satisfied with that outcome.

"She explained the approach that she was going to be taking. The Prime Minister thinks that is absolutely the right one. What actually was happening is that he was offering her his full, strong, very warm support."

The spokesman rejected suggestions that Mrs Miller's ministerial position was more secure because she was a woman - amid criticisms of a lack of female MPs in the upper tiers of Mr Cameron's government.

"He would not accept that at all," he told reporters.

Mr Mann said: “Maria Miller was today found to have acted in a way that is completely unacceptable for a Minister.

“Not only must she now repay her expenses ‘overclaim’ but she was also forced to apologise to the House of Commons for showing a completely inappropriate attitude to the inquiry.

“It is as though she does not take the issue at all seriously. Given David Cameron’s strong statements on ‘cleaning up expenses’ in the past, he will be accused of hypocrisy if he does not sack Maria Miller today.

“Her attitude to this inquiry will infuriate the public, who have had enough of the MPs’ expenses scandal and expect better from a Government Minister.

“Maria Miller’s apology, lasting only a few seconds, shows a lack of respect to Parliament, the Committee on Standards and the public.”

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Miller is lower than a snake's belly. Her attitude is that she's better than the rest; well, as she's beginning to find out, she's not.

Whilst it likely won't happen, I'd love to see her in the dock for her misdemeanours.

You just try "forgetting" to advise HMRC or the DWP of a change in your circumstances....

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The Standards Committee recommended that she repay £45,000 but they were overrruled by MPs from both sides of the house!

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Guy Fawkes had the right idea!