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From The Times

May 14, 2009

(suspended!)

Chief Whip summons Elliot Morley who claimed for non-existent mortgage

(Rex)

Elliot Morley: lawyers said that his claim could amount to fraud

Francis Elliott and Sam Coates

A former minister who claimed Parliamentary expenses on a mortgage which did not exist will today have to justify his claims to the Chief Whip.

Elliot Morley will have to explain to Nick Brown, Labour’s enforcer in chief, why he claimed more than £16,000 of taxpayers’ money for a mortgage he had already paid off.

The former agriculture minister under Tony Blair claimed mortgage interest on his constituency home for more than 18 months after the loan had been repaid. Lawyers said last night that the claim could amount to fraud. But Labour sources said that Mr Morley had paid the money back as soon as he was alerted by the Parliamentary authorities. They did not give any indication that he faced disciplinary action.

Mr Morley has apologised and said that he informed the chief whip and the Parliamentary fees office.

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During 2007, Parliament’s Department of Resources asked MPs to provide annual mortgage documents relating to properties for which they claimed. At the time, Mr Morley was claiming £800 a month for mortgage interest on a property in Scunthorpe.

The mortgage had been repaid by March 1 2006, according to Land Registry documents.

He continued claiming until November 2007, however, when he flipped his designated second home from Scunthorpe to a London property.

Last night, Mr Morley apologised and said that he had informed the Chief Whip and the parliamentary fees office. He said he had repaid some money but refused to disclose how much. He told the Daily Telegraph, who disclosed the arrangement: “I do not believe any offence has been committed. I have reported this to the finance department and chief whip.

“I have made a mistake, I apologise for that and I take full responsibility. My priority was to repay and if I suffer financially as a result of that, I have only myself to blame.”

Only last month Mr Morley robustly defended his expense claims.His latest expense claim was for more than £145,000.

He said: “Claims do vary from year to year. My salary won’t run to employing local staff, running an office, providing a second home, or dealing with thousands of requests for help and assistance in a year. I have always been in the bottom or middle quartile of MPs’ claims and I suspect I’ll be back toward the bottom this year.”

Mr Morley, a privy councillor, was renting out the London property, which was designated as his “main residence”, to another Labour MP.

Ian Cawsey, a Labour Party MP and vice-chairman, who was renting the house, said last night he was unaware that the property was also Mr Morley’s main residence.

For four months after Mr Morley “flipped” his homes, the former minister claimed full mortgage interest on the London house while Mr Cawsey, who had designated the house as his second home, continued to claim £1,000 a month for the same property in rent. The rent money was paid to Mr Morley.

Mr Cawsey, a friend of Mr Morley, said that he had no idea about Mr Morley’s arrangements. In a statement he said: “I do not have any interest or ownership rights to [the London property] or on any other home except my family home in my constituency. I receive no financial or personal gain from these arrangements.”

Mr Morley was a minister under Tony Blair and was made a privy councillor in December 2006. Since January, he has been the chairman of the House of Commons energy and climate change select committee. He has claimed close to the maximum amount allowable in expenses over the past four years.

Steven Barker, a lawyer who specialises in fraud cases, said: “The Fraud Act was designed to deal with these types of offences. There is also a possibility of an offence of false accounting under the Theft Act.”

• HAVE YOUR SAY

So if I submit a bogus tax return I can just say sorry and offer to repay? I think not. 

On the other hand, does this mean we can all submit a tax claim for our share of the tax overcharge caused by disallowed claims. Now there's a thought.

Keith, Stockport,

I i steal a car & then return it 5 years later because i got caught. Will there be "disiplinary action"?

Jason, Woodbridge, uk

If I stole money from a bank and was caught, would it be alright for me to simply return the money and apologise? Knowingly or not, this man committed a fraud against the public. And if he did it unknowingly, as he claims, then he's incompetent, too. Away with him.

James, London,