MP claims second home helps her 'do a better job'

1:16pm Wednesday 23rd July 2008

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Chipping Barnet MP Theresa Villiers released a breakdown of her expenses claims last week as part of a Conservative party drive for greater transparency.

The move by all shadow cabinet members comes after several high-profile MPs were forced to publish details of their expenses under the Freedom of Information Act having lost a three-year legal battle with campaigners.

Ms Villiers, shadow Secretary of State for Transport, claimed £4,758 under the Additional Cost Allowance (ACA), which allows MPs to draw up to £24,006 a year to cover the cost of staying away from their constituency homes while in Westminster.

Ms Villiers’ claim for the three months up to July included £410 for her council tax bill and £3,185 towards the interest on mortgages on her two homes, one of which is in her constituency and the other in central London.

She said: “Having a second home means that I’m able to do a better job for my constituents than I would be able to given the very long hours that MPs work.

“It helps to have the flexibility of a base close to Westminster,” she claimed.

On July 3 a narrow majority of MPs voted against replacing the ACA with a more transparent system and to abolish the so-called ‘John Lewis list’, used by Commons officials to determine the maximum value of household goods that can be claimed for, from fridges to DVD players.

Ms Villiers was unable to attend the vote because of illness but said she would have voted to reform the ACA and abolish the list.

Some MPs claimed that their colleagues using the ACA to pay off mortgage interest could profit from capital gains when they sold their second homes.

This argument was rejected by a commons committee that reviewed the ACA before the vote on the grounds that profits could be swallowed up by fluctuating markets and capital gains tax.