Another Greedy MP fiddling expenses.

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   MPs' expenses: Culture Secretary Maria Miller’s £90,000 claims for parents’ home
   

A Cabinet minister claimed more than £90,000 in taxpayers’ funds for a second home where her parents lived, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.








Maria Miller claimed more than £90,000 in taxpayers’ funds for a second home where her parents lived, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. Photo: PA





By Holly Watt, and Claire Newell

10:28PM GMT 10 Dec 2012




Maria Miller, the Culture Secretary, claimed the cost of the mortgage and other expenses associated with the large detached property in south London.


She said that the property has been her parents’ home for “nearly two decades”.


The Cabinet minister’s arrangements would appear to be at odds with parliamentary rules. In 2009, Tony McNulty, the Labour Home Office minister, was severely reprimanded for letting his parents live in his taxpayer-funded second home.


The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards ruled that second homes must be “exclusively” for the use of MPs in fulfilling their parliamentary duties and that housing a politician’s parents was “specifically prohibited” by the rules. During the period, Mrs Miller said her main home was a rented property in her Basingstoke constituency, which meant the taxpayer was liable for the second home in London.


The Daily Telegraph began an investigation into Mrs Miller’s expense claims after receiving information from a well-placed source.



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Mrs Miller, a former advertising executive, and her husband, a partner in a City law firm, bought a double-fronted terrace house in an upmarket south London suburb in January 1996 for £234,000.

In December 1996, Mrs Miller’s parents — John and June Lewis — sold their home in Wales and official records show that they moved to the London property.

John Lewis, the minister’s father, 73, said they had moved to the home to help Mrs Miller look after the children when she launched her unsuccessful attempt to become the Conservative MP for Wolverhampton. “We moved in to help her ... with everything. You can’t become an MP and fight an unwinnable seat in Wolverhampton with two or three kids back here,” he said. “We were sitting out in South Wales, twiddling our thumbs and it was a very good idea.”

In 2005, Mrs Miller was finally elected to Parliament as the Conservative MP for Basingstoke, about 50 miles from her south London home.

At this point, she declared her London house as her second home for the purposes of parliamentary expenses. Mrs Miller had a home loan called an offset mortgage, in which the value of repayments can vary significantly.

Between 2005 and 2006, Mrs Miller was claiming £1,439 a month in mortgage interest payments — covering the entire loan. Typical claims for utilities were about £125 a month, council tax was £150. In March 2006, she claimed £477 for “crockery”.

By July 2007, her mortgage claims had increased to £1,519 a month. In January 2008, her mortgage increased by around £100,000 to £575,000, with interest payments of about £2,700 a month.

Parliamentary rules at the time limited claims to about £24,000 annually. Mrs Miller did not make claims covering the entire cost of her mortgage and received about £2,000 a month from the cost.

During the four years, Mrs Miller claimed £90,718 in expenses for the property – just £115 less than the maximum permitted amount for the period. She made her last claim for the property on April 27, 2009 – less than 10 days before this newspaper published the first in a series of articles about MPs’ expense claims. Mrs Miller has since stopped claiming expenses for the property and, since 2011, declared it as her main home, which means she cannot claim expenses towards it.

The Daily Telegraph has established that between 2005 and 2009, Mrs Miller claimed her “main home” for the purposes of parliamentary expenses was a rented cottage in her constituency.

A spokesman for Mrs Miller said: “Mrs Miller’s elderly parents have lived with her family for nearly two decades, an arrangement that has been in place long before she was elected as an MP seven years ago.

“(Her) financial arrangements have been audited twice, and have been found to be wholly proper and above board. She sought guidance from the fees office in regard to her expenses and acted in accordance with that. Any suggestion her arrangements are questionable is simply untrue.”

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This couple were already wealthy , an MP and a partner in a Law Firm would have produced a big income , yet still they have to cheat.!!!! Until Parliament cleans up it's act and prosecutes MP's the public will never trust Politicians . I'm sure there are some honest politicians but they will be tarred with the same brush.

SHE MY MP

Badboy wrote:SHE MY MP

I think she should do the decent thing and resign Badboy.

Panda wrote:

Badboy wrote:SHE MY MP

I think she should do the decent thing and resign Badboy.

I know what she should do, but I'd probably be banned for posting my thoughts....
Why is nothing ever put into place to put a final stop to the arrogant theft from the public purse by our elected 'Honourable Members'? These creatures have no 'Honour' and certainly no shame!
If it was a drably dressed, ciggie smoking single parent from a squalid council estate, falsely claiming a couple of quid for packet of smokes, Social Workers would be assessing the affects of the wicked woman's lifestyle on her children...
This vile smiling cow has been and still is robbing the country blind while living the life of Riley on £65K + per year with complete impunity.

All in it together David? Don't talk like the complete tw*t you are!

malena stool wrote:

Panda wrote:

Badboy wrote:SHE MY MP

I think she should do the decent thing and resign Badboy.

I know what she should do, but I'd probably be banned for posting my thoughts....
Why is nothing ever put into place to put a final stop to the arrogant theft from the public purse by our elected 'Honourable Members'? These creatures have no 'Honour' and certainly no shame!
If it was a drably dressed, ciggie smoking single parent from a squalid council estate, falsely claiming a couple of quid for packet of smokes, Social Workers would be assessing the affects of the wicked woman's lifestyle on her children...
This vile smiling cow has been and still is robbing the country blind while living the life of Riley on £65K + per year with complete impunity.

All in it together David? Don't talk like the complete tw*t you are!

Morning Malena, it's not just the Tories, Labour as well, I don't think I have ever known such a dearth of trustworthy Politicians and Cameron is spineless , what will he do with this MP, tell her to stand down and have a byelection ? No he won't do that in case the Tories lose and let Labour in. !!!

1. 
   
2. 
   Key David Cameron aide Craig Oliver threatens Telegraph over Leveson
   

David Cameron's director of communications warned The Daily Telegraph that Maria Miller was “looking at Leveson” after being asked questions about her expense claims.








Craig Oliver, David Cameron's director of communications Photo: REX






By Robert Winnett, Political Editor

3:11PM GMT 12 Dec 2012




In a phone call to the editor of this newspaper, Craig Oliver indicated that the article may be poorly timed as “she [Maria Miller] is looking at Leveson at the moment.”


The comments came less than 24 hours after an adviser to the Culture Secretary telephoned a reporter working on an article about Mrs Miller’s expense claims to “flag up” the minister’s role in implementing new press rules.


The adviser then telephoned a public affairs executive at Telegraph Media Group who has no role in editorial decisions at the newspaper.


Downing Street aides have today insisted that the adviser was raising “legitimate concerns” despite the references to the Leveson Inquiry – which were irrelevant to the article.


It can now be disclosed that after the contacts between Mrs Miller’s adviser and the newspaper, Mr Oliver phoned Tony Gallagher, the editor of The Daily Telegraph, last Friday morning. He said that Mrs Miller was “very distressed” about her family being questioned over her expense claims.



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The Downing Street communications director said that the Cabinet Minister, who is currently overseeing negotiations over a new system of press regulation, was considering making a complaint to the Press Complaints Commission.

He then raised the fact that Mrs Miller was leading the Government’s response to the Leveson Report which recommended statutory press regulation.

Earlier this week, Mrs Miller was exposed by this newspaper for claiming more than £90,000 for a second home used by her parents.

The arrangement is banned under Parliamentary rules. Mrs Miller has since claimed that her elderly parents are dependents and therefore need to live with her.

However, Parliamentary sleaze watchdogs have previously stated that, in this situation, they should live in an MP’s main home or the taxpayer should be compensated for the costs of their accommodation.

Between 2005 and 2009, the taxpayer was paying the costs of Mrs Miller’s second home, which she owned with her husband, while her “main” home was a more modest rented house in her Hampshire constituency.

The Daily Telegraph has decided to disclose details of the private conversations amid widespread concern about the potential dangers of politicians being given a role in overseeing the regulation of the press.

In the wake of the disclosures of the threats made by Mrs Miller’s adviser, other senior media figures have expressed alarm over the references being made to the Leveson Inquiry in the context of journalistic inquiries.

The Culture Secretary is now facing calls to step aside from talks on the future of press regulation.

This morning, Evan Harris, of the Hacked Off campaign, and Roy Greenslade, a professor of journalism at City University, said Mrs Miller should "recuse herself" from negotiations about the Leveson Report.

Brian Cathcart, executive director of Hacked Off, said: "This story illustrates exactly why ministers must be kept at arm's length from the regulation of the press. It cannot be right that politicians who are subject to the scrutiny of the newspapers and who are constantly vulnerable to public challenge in this way are sitting down with editors and proprietors of those same newspapers to design a press regulation system."

However, Downing Street has said it has full confidence in Mrs Miller, insisting the aide was raising "legitimate concerns" about the expenses report.

The Prime Minister's spokesman said David Cameron still backs Mrs Miller over the issue. He also said that Joanna Hindley, the adviser, had not breached any part of the code of conduct which governs the activities of special advisers.

“My understanding is that she was raising legitimate concerns about the way in which the investigation has been handled, which is perfectly reasonable for her to do that," he said.

Asked why Miss Hindley raised the issue of press regulation, he said: “She made clear that Maria Miller was in contact with the editor and would be raising those concerns directly and it is my understanding a letter was sent.”

Asked why Miss Hindley then phoned The Telegraph’s head of corporate affairs to discuss an editorial investigation, he said: “Both the special adviser and the secretary of state were raising concerns about the way that investigation was conducted.”

Asked if Maria Miller or her aide were threatening The Telegraph over its investigation, the spokesman said: “It is reasonable for someone in the Government to raise these kinds of concerns about the way a newspaper is conducting an investigation.”

Miss Hindley also accused The Telegraph of harassing Mrs Miller’s father, John Lewis.

In fact, reporters had a brief conversation with Mr Lewis in order to establish how long he had lived with Mrs Miller. Over the course of the conversation, Mr Lewis said he enjoyed reading The Telegraph.

A DCMS spokesperson said: "Mrs Miller's special adviser raised concerns with a journalist about the nature of an approach to Mrs Miller's elderly father. Her advisor noted that Mrs Miller was in contact with the paper's editor and would raise her concerns directly with him, which Mrs Miller did subsequently.

"However, this is a separate issue to ongoing discussions about press regulation. Mrs Miller has made the Government's position on this clear."

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'Politicians don't like rigorous investigation'

Maria Miller under investigation over £90,000 expenses


Maria Miller is being investigated by the MPs' watchdog after she claimed more than £90,000 in taxpayer-funded expenses for a second home where her parents lived.








Maria Miller Photo: EPA






By Rowena Mason, Political correspondent

12:52PM GMT 13 Dec 2012





John Lyon, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, launched an inquiry after The Telegraph published details about Mrs Miller's expenses this week.


Between 2005 and 2009, the Culture Secretary claimed the cost of the mortgage and other expenses associated with a South London property, which has been her parents’ home for “nearly two decades”.


Mrs Miller insists her expenses are "absolutely in order" but the watchdog has decided to look at whether there is a case to answer.


A spokesman for Mr Lyon told the BBC today: "It has been accepted for inquiry. There is an inquiry."


The investigation was launched after John Mann, a Labour MP, complained that the Cabinet minister’s arrangements appear to be at odds with parliamentary rules.



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Mr Mann said the Culture Secretary's claims appear to be almost "identical" to those of Tony McNulty, a Labour Home Office minister, who was severely reprimanded for letting his parents live in his taxpayer-funded second home in 2009.

In that case, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards ruled that second homes must be “exclusively” for the use of MPs in fulfilling their parliamentary duties and that housing a politician’s parents was “specifically prohibited” by the rules.

Mrs Miller today hit back at her critics in an interview with The Evening Standard, saying her expenses have been "audited twice independently" in a review of MPs by Sir Thomas Legg and another by the Conservative Party.

However, when asked whether those auditors knew that her parents lived in the property, she did not give a clear answer.

“I obviously spoke to the Fees Office about my claims and they were happy that everything was in order,” she said.

She also struggled to explain why she abruptly stopped claiming expenses for the second home in 2009, shortly before The Daily Telegraph broke the MPs’ expenses scandal.

“Because I think there was a lot of concern about the rules and, a lot of concern about, you know, the whole issue, and it’s something I felt that I didn’t want to be, sort of, mixed up in, the fact that I," she said, before adding: “I just made that decision.”

Mrs Miller is also under pressure over a row about her aide's handling of the story. Joanna Hindley, one of her special advisers, warned The Telegraph to consider the Culture Secretary's role in deciding the future of press regulation before this newspaper published details about the minister's expenses claims.

The adviser said she wanted to “flag up” the Cabinet minister’s connection to press regulation after reporters established that Mrs Miller’s parents lived in her taxpayer-funded second home.

David Cameron’s communications chief Craig Oliver also warned The Daily Telegraphthat the Culture Secretary was “looking at Leveson” after this newspaper started to ask questions about her expenses claims.

Speaking to the Evening Standard, Mrs Miller denied that any improper influence was used to prevent publication of the story.

“This has nothing to do with the Leveson inquiry,” she said. “My concern is that any investigation is done in accordance with the rules, the editor’s code.

“What I did was to contact the editor of the Telegraph directly to express my concern at the way his investigation was being undertaken.”

The Daily Telegraph began an investigation into Mrs Miller’s expense claims after receiving information from a well-placed source.

During a four-year period, Mrs Miller said her main home was a rented property in her Basingstoke constituency, which meant the taxpayer was liable for the second home in London.

The former advertising executive and her husband, a partner in a City law firm, bought a double-fronted terrace house in an upmarket south London suburb in January 1996 for £234,000.

In December 1996, Mrs Miller’s parents — John and June Lewis — sold their home in Wales and official records show that they moved to the London property.

John Lewis, the minister’s father, 73, said they had moved to the home to help Mrs Miller look after the children when she launched her unsuccessful attempt to become the Conservative MP for Wolverhampton. “We moved in to help her ... with everything. You can’t become an MP and fight an unwinnable seat in Wolverhampton with two or three kids back here,” he said. “We were sitting out in South Wales, twiddling our thumbs and it was a very good idea.”

In 2005, Mrs Miller was finally elected to Parliament as the Conservative MP for Basingstoke, about 50 miles from her south London home.

At this point, she declared her London house as her second home for the purposes of parliamentary expenses. Mrs Miller had a home loan called an offset mortgage, in which the value of repayments can vary significantly.

Between 2005 and 2006, Mrs Miller was claiming £1,439 a month in mortgage interest payments — covering the entire loan. Typical claims for utilities were about £125 a month, council tax was £150. In March 2006, she claimed £477 for “crockery”.

By July 2007, her mortgage claims had increased to £1,519 a month. In January 2008, her mortgage increased by around £100,000 to £575,000, with interest payments of about £2,700 a month.

Parliamentary rules at the time limited claims to about £24,000 annually. Mrs Miller did not make claims covering the entire cost of her mortgage and received about £2,000 a month from the cost.

During the four years, Mrs Miller claimed £90,718 in expenses for the property – just £115 less than the maximum permitted amount for the period. She made her last claim for the property on April 27, 2009 – less than 10 days before this newspaper published the first in a series of articles about MPs’ expense claims. Mrs Miller has since stopped claiming expenses for the property and, since 2011, declared it as her main home, which means she cannot claim expenses towards it.

The Daily Telegraph has established that between 2005 and 2009, Mrs Miller claimed her “main home” for the purposes of parliamentary expenses was a rented cottage in her constituency.

A spokesman for Mrs Miller said: “Mrs Miller’s elderly parents have lived with her family for nearly two decades, an arrangement that has been in place long before she was elected as an MP seven years ago.

“(Her) financial arrangements have been audited twice, and have been found to be wholly proper and above board. She sought guidance from the fees office in regard to her expenses and acted in accordance with that. Any suggestion her arrangements are questionable is simply untrue.”

Maria Miller expenses: Telegraph's side of the story


Tip-offs, e-mails and phone calls. The sequence of events whch led to exposure of Culture Secretary Maria Miller's questionable expense claims.








Maria Miller, the culture secretary Photo: GEOFF PUGH





7:06PM GMT 13 Dec 2012




Over the past few days, a series of allegations have been made about The Daily Telegraph’s investigation into the expense claims of Maria Miller, the Culture Secretary.


The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards has now launched an investigation into the claims.


To set the record straight, this is a timeline of the sequence of events which led to this week’s exposure of the questionable claims – and the various contacts with senior Government figures.


November 17: Daily Telegraph contacted by source who claimed that Culture Secretary had recently changed her living arrangements for the purposes of Parliamentary expenses. Newspaper informed that she previously rented a property in her Basingstoke constituency from her local constituency chairman – allowing her to claim cost of main home in south London which was also where her parents lived.


November 19: Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority publishes details of MPs' landlords. This shows that Miller no longer rents property from her local constituency chairman.



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November 20 – December 5: Series of enquiries made into the allegations made by source, including visiting the previous properties and areas where Miller previously rented properties. Public records show that she was living in properties owned by Nigel McNair Scott between 2005 and 2010.

However, public records show that Miller’s parents are only on published version of electoral roll in south London until 2005 when she became an MP and began claiming expenses on property.

Thursday December 6:

3pm: Claire Newell, Investigations Editor of The Daily Telegraph, visits Miller’s south London home to establish who is living there. John Lewis, the minister’s father, answers the door. Newell identifies herself as a reporter and asks a series of questions.

He confirms that both he and Miller’s mother have lived at the property since the late 1990s. He said they had moved to the home to help Miller look after her children when she launched her unsuccessful attempt to become the Conservative MP for Wolverhampton. “We moved in to help her ... with everything. You can't become an MP and fight an unwinnable seat in Wolverhampton with two or three kids back here,” he said. “We were sitting out in South Wales, twiddling our thumbs and it was a very good idea.”

The cordial conversation ended with Lewis saying that he would have liked to have spent longer talking to the reporter. He also praised The Daily Telegraph.

3.40pm: Jo Hindley, Miller’s special adviser, calls Ed Taylor, head of public affairs at Telegraph Media Group who has no role in editorial decisions for The Daily Telegraph. Taylor does have a role in co-ordinating The Telegraph’s response to the Leveson proposals with Miller’s department.

3.41pm: Hindley leaves a message on Newell’s telephone.

3.45pm: Holly Watt, Whitehall Editor of the Daily Telegraph, returns Hindley’s call. During the course of the conversation, the special adviser said: “Maria has obviously been having quite a lot of editors’ meetings around Leveson at the moment. So I am just going to kind of flag up that connection for you to think about.” Hindley also said the reporter should discuss the issue with “people a little higher up your organisation”. Watt agrees to send an emailed list of questions to Hindley about the minister’s expense claims. This is sent as soon as the conversation ends. Miller is asked to respond by 4pm the following day.

Friday December 7:

9.34am: Craig Oliver, director of communications at Downing Street, calls Tony Gallagher, editor of The Daily Telegraph.

Oliver indicated that the article may be poorly timed as “she [Maria Miller] is looking at Leveson at the moment”.

Oliver said that Miller was “very distressed” about her family being questioned over her expense claims.

The Downing Street communications director said that the Cabinet Minister, who is currently overseeing negotiations over a new system of press regulation, was considering making a complaint to the Press Complaints Commission.

Gallagher asked for an email address to contact Miller.

11.39am: Gallagher emailed Miller. The email said: “I believe one of our journalists contacted you yesterday about a public interest story we are investigating for publication. I can assure you our journalists always act according to the Editor's Code of Practice and all enquiries carried out were appropriate in the circumstances.

“I will of course contact you, giving you plenty of notice, if I decide we are ready to publish a story.”

7:16pm: Hindley responded to The Daily Telegraph’s questions about Miller’s expense claims – more than three hours late. Rather than answering the questions, a short statement was instead provided. Following Gallagher’s earlier assurance to give the minister “plenty of notice” before publication, the decision was taken to delay publication until the following week.

Saturday December 8: Miller replies to Gallagher’s email. She said: “Thank you for your email. If the approach had been made to me I would not be concerned. However, your Investigations Editor decided to go to my home and speak to my elderly father. For obvious reasons I do not wish to provide my father's personal details but suffice to say my father is ill equipped to deal with media enquiries and your Editor's visit caused enormous and continuing distress to my father and my mother, who was also at home at the time. I should add that the Editor did not disclose her identity until the interview was over. The visit was made on the afternoon of a working day when I was in Parliament and it is not reasonable to have expected me to be at home.

“I can see no reason why these enquiries could not have been addressed directly to me or my office. Irrespective of whatever you are investigating, I cannot see a justification for this family intrusion. I should be grateful if you could confirm that you now understand the basis of my concern and that on reflection this could have been handled differently.”

Sunday December 9: Gallagher responds to Miller’s email – he apologises for any upset she feels but defends handling of story and the necessity of contacting her father.

The email said: “Sorry for the lateness of this reply but I have been out of contact for much of the day.

“I can, of course, understand the nature of your concern and I apologise for any upset that was caused. I am assured, however, that my reporter identified herself twice and handed over a business card at the end of the conversation.”

Monday December 10:

11.34am: Craig Oliver is warned by Gallagher that formal questions are being asked of Maria Miller today.

11:40am: Watt again contacts Hindley, Miller’s special adviser, by email to give the minister another opportunity to justify the expense claims. The relevant section of the findings against Tony McNulty, a former Labour minister censured for using his second home to house his parents, are provided and Miller is asked to explain why her situation should be considered differently.

6.06pm: Hindley replies with another short statement. It said: “Maria Miller’s financial arrangements have been audited twice, and have been found to be wholly proper and above board. She sought guidance from the fees office in regard to her expenses and acted in accordance with that. Any suggestion her arrangements are questionable is simply untrue.”

Tuesday December 11: The Daily Telegraph publishes first article about Miller’s expense claims. John Mann, a Labour MP, reports the Culture Secretary to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.

Senior Government sources, including Miller’s aides, erroneously suggest that The Daily Telegraph has chosen to print story on the same day that minister announces plans to allow gay marriage in an attempt to overshadow the announcement.

Miller said: “This is not something that I think should get in the way of what is such an important announcement today.”

As Miller's officials know this to be untrue, a decision is taken to publish the threatening conversation with the special advisor. While such conversations are normally treated as private, it is clear they should be published to stop Miller's team misleading the public.

Wednesday December 12: The Daily Telegraph publishes article disclosing that Hindley raised prospect of Leveson during conversations about Miller’s expense claims.

At the regular morning lobby briefing, Downing Street said that Hindley was raising “legitimate concerns” about approaching the minister’s family.

Officials insist we have misinterpreted the reference to Leveson because they were simply drawing attention to her heavy workload.

3pm: Telegraph.co.uk publishes details of Oliver’s conversation with Gallagher to show that the spectre of Leveson has again been raised in a menacing fashion. Oliver does not mention her workload.

At afternoon lobby briefing, Downing Street spokesman defends conduct of Oliver and Hindley. Spokesman says that Oliver was merely “reflecting concerns” set out in letter from Miller to Gallagher. However, letter was only sent more than 24 hours after conversation took place after Gallagher contacted Miller.

Journalists are briefed by anonymous Government sources that Gallagher has apologised to Miller. It was claimed that Leveson was only mentioned to demonstrate how Miller was “busy”.

In fact, Gallagher has only apologised if she was upset. He has defended his reporters' actions in emails.

Thursday December 13: The Daily Telegraph publishes further story on Miller’s living arrangements while claiming expenses.

Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards announces investigation into expense claims.

Miller gives interview to Evening Standard in which she repeats claim that her expenses were “independently audited”. However, she admits that one of these audits was conducted by Conservative Party and indicates that auditors were not told about parents living arrangements.

Asked why she stopped claiming expenses on the Wimbledon property as the expenses scandal began in 2009, she said: “Because I think there was a lot of concern about the rules and, a lot of concern about, you know, the whole issue, and it’s something I felt that I didn’t want to be, sort of, mixed up in, the fact that I.” She then added: “I just made that decision.”

David Cameron said that Miller has given “excellent answers” to questions about her expenses – despite widespread ridicule over the interview in Westminster.