Fox, Liam

MPs’ expenses: Liam Fox becomes highest shadow cabinet repayer

Liam Fox, the shadow defence secretary, has become the Conservative frontbencher with the highest expenses repayment after his appeal against a request to return £22,500 was rejected.

Mar 2010

In a blow to David Cameron, who has attempted to draw a line under the expenses scandal, Mr Fox’s lengthy battle to avoid repaying overclaims for mortgage interest was thrown out by the high court judge appointed to hear challenges against the audit of Commons allowances by Sir Thomas Legg.
 
Mr Fox had increased the loan on his London second home in order to pay for decorating work and to fund his main constituency home, and breached the rules by claiming for the higher interest payments.
 
Sir Paul Kennedy, whose ruling on the final 14 challenges to the Legg audit was published yesterday, told him: “What you claimed was not recoverable under the rules then in force.”
 
In a statement, Mr Fox said that he had already repaid the money, totalling £22,476.03, adding: “When Sir Thomas Legg said that the fees office had overpaid my mortgage interest over six years I immediately repaid the money as I never wanted to have any funds I was not entitled to.
 
“I am delighted that Sir Paul Kennedy has acknowledged that had the fees office rejected this at the outset, I would have been able to claim directly for work carried out on my property. While out of pocket as a result, I feel vindicated that I acted at all times in good faith.”
Shahid Malik, the Communities Minister, had an appeal rejected over excessive claims for a £1,050 television and DVD player, and £730 armchair, which breached the maximum limits set by the Commons authorities.

Sir Paul said that he recognised the minister’s “frustration (and) irritation” that the claims had originally been approved by the now-discredited Commons fees office, but added: “I can not intervene”.

The former judge also rejected Mr Malik’s challenge to a demand to return overclaims for council tax, which he said he had “planned” with the consent of the fees office to offset a “shortfall” in mortgage interest claims.

John Lyons, former Labour MP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, was ordered to repay £11,004.50 after Sir Paul said it appeared that he had claimed for his full mortgage costs, rather limiting his expanses to the interest only element to which he was entitled.

Labour's Derek Wyatt had his repayment demand reduced from £3,611 to £3,490 after Sir Paul rejected the bulk of his appeal.

In total, five MPs had their appeals rejected, while five more were upheld and four had their repayment requests reduced.

The Members Estimates Committee of senior MPs disclosed that 13 MPs with overclaims of £10,000 or more had entered into secret deals to delay their repayment requests until July.

Sheree Dodd, a spokesman for the House of Commons, refused to give their names or details of their overclaims.

Around half are expected to resign or lose their seats at the general election, which is widely expected in May – they will have any outstanding sums docked from the generous retirement grants given to MPs.

In addition, three former MPs are understood to be in the process of returning funds, while another two are said to be refusing to pay amounts running into tens of thousands of pounds.

A source said: “They haven’t quite said **** *** but they’re not far off.

“Some of the MPs wanted far longer than to repay their overclaims, but we had to have a cut off point, and July seems fair.”

Miss Dodd would not give the names of the former MPs who had failed to return overclaims.

Matthew Elliott, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers will be angry that the Commons authorities are still covering up information about the expenses scandal.

“Any delay will mean that MPs’ continue to benefit from their dodgy claims for months to come and might allow them to avoid paying at all, or to pay out of the resettlement grant they shouldn’t be getting in the first place.

“They need to name the MPs who are delaying paying back taxpayers’ money that should never have been paid out and outline why they have been allowed a delay, or make it very clear how they will ensure that the money is definitely repaid.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/7450738/MPs-expenses-Liam-Fox-becomes-highest-shadow-cabinet-repayer.html