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.
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.
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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/9736153/MPs-expenses-Culture-Secretary-Maria-Millers-90000-claims-for-parents-home.html