Fury as 17 MPs use expenses loophole to rake in £1.3m from the taxpayer to cover rent on London flats while making money from property they OWN in the capital - as it's revealed Tory who told Marcus Rashford to stick to his day job has a second job
- 15 Tory and two Labour MPsused a loophole in parliamentary expenses rules
- The situation was branded 'plain wrong' by MP for North Thanet Sir Roger Gale
- He said : 'The intention was not that you rent one place and let out another'
A group of landlord politicians was slammed today for claiming £1.3million in taxpayers' cash to pay the rent on their London homes - while raking in cash from properties they own.
Some 17 MPs - 15 Tory and two Labour - have used a loophole in parliamentary expenses rules introduced after the 2009 scandal to cover their costs while making thousands from their own tenants.
The situation was branded 'plain wrong' by a fellow MP as the scandal over parliamentary sleaze rumbled on.
North Thanet MP Sir Roger Gale told Times Radio: 'The intention was not that you should rent one place and hire, let out another.'
'The intention was that you have to have - and you do have to have - a second base. If you're a Member of Parliament, there's no doubt about that. You've got to go and sleep somewhere.
'We don't sit late at night as we used to, that's certainly true. But nevertheless, most members of Parliament from most parts of the country can't get home at night. So you have to have somewhere to stay.
'I rent a room at a friend's flat for about a quarter of the allowance that I'm allowed to spend because it's congenial. And it's value for money, as far as I'm concerned it's value for taxpayers' money because it is taxpayers' money. And we need to remember that.'
The scheme is the latest revelation in the standards row that has engulfed Parliament in the past week.
It emerged today that a Tory MP who told England ace Marcus Rashford to stick to football and stop 'playing politics' when he campaigned for free school meals during the pandemic has a second job paying her £36,000.
Dover MP Natalie Elphicke apologised in July after criticising the Manchester United striker for trying to help deprived schoolchildren and mocked his missed Euro 2020 penalty.
Geoffrey Cis is among Some 17 MPs - 15 Tory and two Labour - have used a loophole in parliamentary expenses rules introduced after the 2009 scandal to cover their costs while making thousands from their own tenants
North Thanet MP Sir Roger Gale told Times Radio: 'The intention was not that you should rent one place and hire let out another.'
Dover MP Natalie Elphicke apologised in July after criticising the Manchester United striker for trying to help deprived schoolchildren and mocking his missed Euro 2020 penalty.
She told a Tory WhatsApp group the 24-year-old - who picked up an MBE from Prince William this week - 'should have spent more time perfecting his game and less time playing politics'.
She told a Tory WhatsApp group the 24-year-old - who picked up an MBE from Prince William this week - 'should have spent more time perfecting his game and less time playing politics'.
But at the times she was herself spending time on a second job. She has been chairwoman of the New Homes Quality Board (NHQB). an independent housing watchdog, since May 2020, the i newspaper revealed. She gets paid around £3,000 for eight hours work a month.
The expenses system was reformed in 2010 after the 2009 expenses scandal, seeking to make sure that MPs who owned property in the capital did not make a profit from the sale of homes whose mortgages had been wholly or partly-paid off by the taxpayer.
Instead they were allowed to rent a property separately to put them on a par with MPs who did not own a London base.
Watchdog the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) told the Times that while there was a 'perception of personal gain' It could not force MPs to live in their own homes.
Mr Whittingdale was last week proposed as the chairman of a new alternative anti-sleaze committee, before the scheme was abandoned in a row over former MP Owen Paterson's lobbying.
It came as former attorney general Geoffrey Cox faced fresh questions today after it emerged he took out a £3,900 loan from the taxpayer to cover the deposit on renting a London flat - at the same time as renting out his own property in the capital.
In 2017 the Torridge & West Devon MP moved out of his own property in London, and started claiming around £1,900 a month on expenses for another flat in the capital.
The arrangement does not break any rules, but Sir Geoffrey is reported to be renting his Battersea property out for around £1,000 a week.
MailOnline can also reveal that Sir Geoffrey received a £3,900 loan from the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) in 2017 to pay the deposit on his new accommodation.
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Again, there is no suggestion rules were breached, but the manoeuvre came as Sir Geoffrey was pocketing huge sums from his legal practice. He has earned more than £5million since becoming an MP in 2005.
The eminent QC is also likely to have received a deposit from the tenants of his Battersea property. The accommodation loan from Ipsa will be due for repayment when the MP ends his rental agreement.
A spokeswoman for the MP said: 'Sir Geoffrey has acted at all times within the rules set by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.'
