British MPs told to repay $1.2m expenses

4 Feb 2010, 10:52 pm   -   Source: AAP
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UK lawmakers have been ordered to repay more than one million pounds of expenses linked to their second homes.

British lawmakers have been ordered to repay more than one million pounds of expenses linked to their second homes, after an investigation into a scandal which rocked parliament.

The long-awaited review by former civil servant Thomas Legg on Thursday found lawmakers must return $US1.1 million ($A1.25 million) in payments received for loans on second homes, gardening and cleaning expenses.

The scandal reached a peak last year when one member of parliament (MP) for the opposition Conservatives, Peter Viggers, was found to have claimed more than STG1,600 ($A2,881) for a duck house to stand in a garden pond.

It was revealed on Thursday that the largest sum to be repaid was STG42,458 ($A76,453) by Barbara Follett, a lawmaker from the ruling Labour party who is married to best-selling novelist Ken Follett.

Most of the money was spent on security patrols at the Folletts' second home, as well as more than STG4,500 ($A8,103) for what the audit said was an "excessive" six telephone lines at the property.

Many MPs are unhappy at the investigation, arguing they only claimed what they were entitled to under the rules at the time.

But Legg rejected complaints that he had imposed retrospective rules and spending limits for items such as gardening and cleaning and said the system had been "deeply flawed".

He insisted the regulations on the use of second home allowances stipulated they could "only be used as reimbursement for specific and proportionate expenditure on accommodation needed for the performance of parliamentary duties".

The row over expenses erupted in May when The Daily Telegraph newspaper published leaked details of thousands of claims, for everything from flatscreen TVs to a porn movie claimed by the husband of the then interior minister.

The scandal led to an overhaul of the expenses system, but not before dozens of MPs promised to stand down at a general election due by June, and a number resigned, including the speaker of parliament's lower House of Commons.

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