Alistair Darling claimed £70,000 from taxpayer for his £1million home
Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, claimed almost £70,000 in Commons
expenses after designating his £1million family house as his second
home.
By Simon Johnson, Scottish Political Editor
Last Updated: 5:52PM GMT 15 Feb 2009
Between 2003 and 2005, Mr Darling registered rooms in two flats in
London as his main residence instead of the large home he shares with
his wife Margaret in Edinburgh.
Using the same system exploited by Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary,
this allowed him to claim thousands of pounds for 'housing costs'
towards his second home.
MPs, who split their time between their constituencies and Westminster,
can nowadays elect their London or family homes as their main place of
residence.
However, designating the larger property as their second home allows
them to claim more under the Commons allowance system, including
mortgage interest increases, council tax, decoration and utility bills.
The Chancellor and his wife, Margaret, bought a large home in an opulent
part of Edinburgh for £570,000 in 1998. Its value is now estimated to be
£1.2million.
In 2003 Mr Darling took cheap lodgings with Lord Moonie, one of the
peers at the centre of the 'cash for amendments' scandal, who owned and
lived in a South London flat.
Mr Darling inhabited a single room in the £260,000 property in Lambeth,
which Lord Moonie bought from Gordon Brown in 1992.
Commons rules required all ministers to designate their London homes as
their main residence until 2004, after which they were told to list
their 'main home'.
Between 2001 and early 2004, when he had no choice but declare Edinburgh
as his 'second home', he claimed a total of £45,954 towards his family
house.
However, the Chancellor continued to list the room in Lord Moonie's flat
as his main residence after the rule change gave him the choice.
This enabled him to claim a further £15,341 in the 2004-05 financial
year for his Edinburgh home. In contrast, the typical rent for a room in
flat in Lambeth was about £150 per week, or £7,800 per year.
Mr Darling then moved to a room in another flat, again listing it with
the Commons as his main residence. In the 2005-06 financial year he
claimed a further £19,436 in respect of his second home.
The first five months of this year's claim was made in respect of his
family house, before he finally decided to designate it as his main home
in September 2005.
In total he claimed more than £70,000 for his second home over five
years, including almost £25,000 in the two years after the rule change.
Additional Costs Allowance - worth up to £24,006 a year - is meant to
cover housing costs including mortgage interest and utility bills
associated with MPs' responsibilities at Westminster and in their
constituencies.
Cabinet ministers have used the allowance to claim more than £2 million
over the past six years, sometimes attracting controversy.
Last year Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper faced questions over their decision
to designate their Yorkshire home as their primary residence, even
though their children attend school in London. The move allowed the
couple to claim public money on their more expensive London home.
A spokesman for Mr Darling stressed the Chancellor had not broken any
rules, adding that he is "fastidious" about his expense claims.
Http://www.telegrap
Darling-claimed-
Monday, 16 February 2009
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